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LIFE AND REMINISCENCES 



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jefferso:n dayis. 



BY 

DISTINGUISHED MEN OF HIS TIME. 

INTRODUCTORY BY 

Hon. JOHN W. DANIEL, 

United States Senator from Virginia. 



iiiiiTrsa?ia-A.TE3D, 



BALTIMORE: 

E. H. WOODWARD & COMPANY. 

1890. 






rD ^G L?3 



Copyright, 1890, by 
fi. EL WOODWARD & COMPANY. 



1898 



TO THE 

PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH 

TO YOU 

IS DEDICATED THIS MEMORIAI, VOI.UME 

OF YOUR HONORED AND MUCH I^OVED CHIEFTAIN 

JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

THE STATESMAN, SOI,DIER, AND CHRISTIAN, IN WHOM 

WAS EMBODIED 

AS IN NO OTHER MAN 

THE POWTICAI, VIEWS AND SENTIMENTS, 

WHICH YOU 

SO ABLY MAINTAINED IN THAT MEMORABLE CONFLICT OP 

1861-65. 



CONTENTS. 



LIFE. 

PAGE 

Birth-place of Jefferson Davis 3 

His Eari.y Life 3 

Training at Academy 3 

Student at Transylvania Academy 4 

Cadet at West Point 4 

Second Lieutenant in the Regular Army 4 

Service on the Northwestern Frontier 4 

Resigned His Commission 4 

Presidential Elector in 1845 5 

Elected to U. S. House of Representatives 5 

Political Career 6 

War With Mexico 6 

Colonel of the " Mississippi Rifles " 7 

Battle of Monterey 8 

Battle of Buena Vista ix 

Colonel Davis Wounded . . * 13 

Appointed U. S. Senator 14 

His Views Concerning the Union in 1850 15 

The Southern Triumvirate 19 

Speech on the Occasion of his Retiring from the U. S. 

Senate, Jan. 21, 1861 22 

Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce 31 

Elected President of the Confederate States .... 34 

His Inaugural Address 34 

Speech at Richmond 37 

Historic Rooms . • 39 

V 



vi CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

A IvOvabIvE; Man 41 

ArrEMPTED Assassination 42 

The Evacuation 42 

Supplementing an Inadequate Sai^ary 43 

S1.0W TO Forget a Wrong 44 

His Vigorous Personalty 44 

His Last Visit to Richmond 45 

anders0nvil1.e 46 

Surrender of General Lee 50 

assassination of president lincoln .50 

Departure from Richmond 50 

Incarcerated in Fortress Monroe 51 

Visits to Canada and England 52 

Settlement at beauvoir 53 

A Day at Beauvoir 54 

The Buildings at Beauvoir 55 

The Venerable Ex-President 56 

The Most Interesting Talker 56 

Gradual Emancipation of the Negro 58 

Mrs. Jefferson Davis 59 

Visit to his Birth-place 61 

Reception of Liberty Bell 64 

His Last Illness 65 

The Death Chamber 65 

Mrs. Davis' Ministrations 66 

Clinging to Hope 66 

The Patient Despondent 67 

The Fatal Attack 68 

Breathed His Life .Away 69 

A Crushing Blow . . 70 

Cause of Death 71 

The Event Announced 71 

An Awed Silence 72 

Brought Cut Flowers 74 

Mr. Davis' Body Servant 75 

More Than He Could Bear 76 

Prayers for the Deceased 77 



CONTENTS. vii 



PAGE 



Touched the Features of the Dead 77 

The Casket 78 

Arranging for the Funerai, 78 

The Funerai, 82 

Scene at the City Hai^i, 82 

The Pai.1, Bearers 83 

Appearance of the Remains 84 

The Services 85 

Bishop Gai,i,eher's Address 85 

Reverentiai, S11.ENCE 88 

The Procession 88 

Tolling Bells 89 

At the Cemetery ^o 

The Final Ceremonies 52 



In the Tomb 

A Question in Conclusion 



95 
99 



REMINISCENCES AND ADDRESSES. 
A Tribute from a Classmate 107 

By General George W. Jones, Ex-United States Minister. 

An Able Man and a Leader 129 

By James Campbell, Ex Postmaster-General of the United States. 

Correction and Misrepresentation 141 

By J. L. M. Curry, LL.D. 

Opinions and Impressions 152 

By Hon. A. H. Garland, Ex-Attorney-General of the United States. 

Memorial Address 158 

By Hon. J. Randolph Tucker. 

Jefferson Davis 168 

By Hon. G. G. Vest, U. S. Senator from Missouri. 



viii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Memoriai, Address i75 

By Rev. Moses Hoge, D.D. 

Ex-President Davis in Texas in 1875 188 

By Ex-Governor F. R. I,ubbock. 

Reminiscence i94 

By General A. R. lyawton, Ex-Minister to Russia and Quartermaster- 
General in the Confederate Army. 

Jefferson Davis as I knew Him 204 

By Hon. Reuben Davis. i 

Recollections and Tribute 214 

By Hon. George Davis, Member of Mr. Davis' Cabinet 

"My Dead Hero" 224 

Bv Rev. Charles Minnigerode, D.D., Mr. Davis' Pastor during the War. 

An American to be Proud of 242 

By Colonel Charles Marshall, Member of General R. E- Lee's Staff. 

Address and Tribute 247 

By General Fitzhugh Lee, Governor of Virginia. 

Reminiscences 259 

By United States Senator Reagan, Member of Mr. Davis' Cabinet. 

Address 269 

By Governor J. B. Gordon, of Georgia. 

Imprisonment of Jefferson Davis 274 

By Hon. S. Teakle Wallis, Member of Baltimore Bar. 

Reminiscence 309 

By General Joseph Wheeler, Member of Congress from Alabama. 

Address 3i7 

By Major Charles S. Stringfellow. Delivered December 21st, 18*9, in 
the Academy of Music, Richmond, Va. 

Funeral Oration 329 

By Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr., LLD., President of the Confederate 
Survivors' Association. 



CONTENTS. ix 

PAGE 

Some Recoi,i,ections oif President Davis 349 

By Major Thomas W. Hall. 

Memoriai, Notice of President Davis. ... 354 

By Major Thomas W. Hall. 

Mr, Davis' State Papers 361 

By Hon. Hillary A. Herbert, Member of Congress from California. 



APPENDIX. 
Generai, Robert E. Lee 397 

By Jefferson Davie. 

Exchange of Prisoners 413 

By Jefferson Davis. 

Lord Woi^eley's Mistakes 425 

By Jefferson Davis. 

A Patriotic Legacy to the Peopi^e of North Carowna 444 

By Jefferson Davis. 

Editoriai, from New York Herai,d 451 

London Press on Jefferson Davis 455 

Northern Estimate of Jefferson Davis 457 

Messages of Condoi<ence 462 

Bai,timore's Memoriai, 475 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

JEFFERSON Davis {Steel) Frontispiece. 

From a photograph taken in 1889. 

JEFFERSON Davis 34 

From a photograph taken when President of the Confederate States. 

Davis' Home 32 

Mr. Davis' residence while in Richmond. 

Custom House, Richmond, Va 41 

Where Mr. Davis had his office during the War. 

Generai. View of Fortress Monroe, Va 51 

Where Mr. Davis was imprisoned. 

Beauvoir, Miss 55 

Mr. Davis' home. 

On the veranda at Beauvoir 56 

Mrs. Jefferson Davis • 59 

Mr. Davis prepared for Buriai, 84 

Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Generai^ ... 194 

Confederate Capitol, Richmond, Va 214 

St. PauIv'S Church, Richmond, Va 224 

Jefferson Davis 240 

After his release from prison. 

Jefferson Davis, with Lee and his Cabinet 259 

Cei,i< in which Mr. Davis was first confined 274 

Fortress Monroe, Va. 

CarrolIv Hai,!,, Fortress Monroe, Va 284 

Where Mr Davis was transferred after being taken from the cell. 

The Famous Libby Prison, Richmond, Va 393 



INTRODUCTORY. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS has been more misrepresented, and 
is to-day more misunderstood by many than any char- 
acter that figured in the Civil War of 1861 to 1864. 
That denunciation should be directed upon him by 
his enemies during the war was natural, — for he was the 
head and front of the Southern Confederacy, and a blow at 
him of any kind was a blow at the cause he represented. 
And thick and bitter as were the invectives that fell upon 
him during the conflict, they were neither thicker nor 
bitterer than those which fell upon Abraham Lincoln from 
his enemies. The war over, a change of feeling instantly 
began between the combatants. General Grant, speaking of 
the surrender at Appomattox, says, that the soldiers of the 
Union and of the Confederate Armies met like friends who 
had been long parted while fighting under the same flag. 
And certain it is that between the actual fighters of the war, 
bitterness rapidly declined ; and toward the military leaders 
of both sides who had distinguished themselves by soldierly 
virtues, there grew up a feeling of admiration and kinness 
on the part of their late antagonists. 

Toward Abraham Lincoln sentiment also changed. It 
was soon felt by the Southern people that considering the 
circumstances in which he was placed he had shown 
as great humanity as would have been shown by any 
other in his stead ; and while this conviction softened the 
asperities of the War, the great abilities he had exhibited 
created high respect. There are few, if any, in the South 

xiii 



xiv INTRODUCTORY. 

who do not believe that the crime which closed his life was 
a deep and permanent misfortune to the country, and 
especially to the South. 

Toward Jefferson Davis, however, the North very slowly 
relented, Lee and Jackson and other Confederate chieftains 
won their admiration. Divines, orators, editors and states- 
men frequently spoke of them and their virtues in terms of 
highest praise ; and it was not long before Northern 
audiences would applaud reference to their characters or 
their exploits with ready and generous enthusiasm. 

Jefferson Davis seemed to stand apart in Northern 
estimate from his companions ; and while the healing work 
of time went on, it did not seem to cure the harshness of 
sentiment toward him. 

I think this was due to several causes : 

1. He was regarded as responsible for the War, and as its 
incarnation. 

2. The assassination of lyincoln directed upon him, as 
the opposing leader, a retaliatory spirit. 

3. It was taught and believed that he was responsible 
for the suffering of Northern soldiers in Southern prisons. 

4. He was proud and unbending in his disposition ; and 
declined to apply for pardon. 

5. He dedicated the remainder of his life to the vindication 
of the cause of which he was the head. 

But while these circumstances kept alive beyond their 
time a vindictive feeling toward Jefferson Davis, it was 
noticeable that it began to subside before he died. When 
he was laid to rest many noble tributes to his manly virtues 
flowed from Northern lips and pens ; and it is safe to 
say that a new tide of feeling has set in. 

I believe it will continue until all America will realize 
that Jefferson Davis was one of the purest and bravest of 



INTRODUCTORY. XV 

the public men which our country has produced ; — that he 
was an honest, able and clear thinker, and a true seeker for 
the good of humanity. 

He was the incarnation of the Southern cause. His 
abilities made him so. But he was no more responsible for 
the War than thousands and tens of thousands on both 
sides. He loved peace and he loved the Union. He 
grieved to see it torn asunder ; and he clung to it as long as 
accommodation was possible. The people in their move 
toward secession were ahead of their leaders. They instinc- 
tively divined the irrepressible conflict and like a crowd in a 
street they pushed the foremost forward. 

When Lincoln died by a foul blow, the North was fren- 
zied. Many believed the assassin was prompted by Confed- 
erate connivance, and reward was offered for Jefferson 
Davis' capture as an accessory to the crime. This is all 
fully disproved now as absurdly false ; but the fires of 
resentment scathed Jefferson Davis while yet passion was 
wild — and unreasoning. 

It is clearly demonstrated now that, so far from sharing 
any responsibility for the sufferings of prisoners, he did his 
best to avert and alleviate them. He tried to get exchanges, 
— he sent a delegation of the prisoners to Washington to 
represent their own situation ; — he sent Alexander H. Ste- 
phens on a special mission for the same purpose ; — he 
proposed that each side send surgeons, money and medicines 
to their men in captivity ; — and he finally gave up Federal 
prisoners — sick and well, — without exchange, rather than 
have them suffer in Confederate hands. 

There were sixty thousand more Federal prisoners in 
Southern prisons, than there were Confederate prisoners in 
Northern prisons ; — and yet, four thousand more Confed- 
erates died in prison. It is easier to protect from cold than 



xvi INTRODUCTOEY. 

from heat ; and the North was ten-fold more able to provide 
for captives than the South. There is no argument possible 
that would convict Jeflferson Davis of cruelty to prisoners, 
that would not more deeply convict Abraham Lincoln. 
When men get reasonable enough to look on both sides, 
and do justice, they will regret the deep wrong done to 
Jefferson Davis in attempts to criminate him. His name is 
as sure of its vindication as time is to roll by. 

The proud and self-poised demeanor of Jefferson Davis, 
and his declination to ask pardon, angered some. General 
Lee had applied for pardon and been refused it. Had 
Jefferson Davis applied, it would have only subjected him 
to humiliation. In not doing so, he stood for a principle. 
The Federal Constitution forbade Congress to enact an 
" ex post facto " law ; that is, a law fixing punishment after 
the offence. Never tried for treason, he was yet punished 
by the ipse dixit of partisan legislation. The Government 
and the Constitution were revolutionized in order to reach 
him. A great and fundamental doctrine of civil liberty was 
overturned. All this will be fully appreciated by the masses 
in time, and many who have derided Jefferson Davis will 
applaud the integrity, the, courage, and the unselfish devo- 
tion with which he adhered to his convictions. 

The tenacious affection for his people, and the noble 
resolution to defend their fame, which characterized the 
declining years of Jefferson Davis, disclosed a character of 
rare beauty and grandeur. He had no ambition for himself. 
He knew his race was run, and he did not wish to prolong 
it. No honor did he crave at the hands of any — not even 
that of re-entering the Senate from Mississippi, which, 
so far as her people were concerned, he could have done. 
He thirsted for higher things than the transient glories of 
power and station. He laid the world aside without a sigh 



INTRODUCTOEY. xvii 

for the parting. The honor of his people, and his cause, 
and himself : — this was all that the world could give which 
he desired. And this he has left upon a sure foundation. 

Intense as have been the passions of the past, they will 
subside. Violent as have been the struggles of great 
interests, their wounds will be healed. Terrible as are the 
memories of strife, truth and justice will soften their harsh 
lines. The character of Jefferson Davis will grow in the 
general estimate. Scholars will ponder it, and will bring to 
the light the facts which have been neglected or ignored ; 
and statesmen who have been under the spur of interest to 
paint him darkly, will feel that impulse to do justice which 
springs up from a sense of injustice done. 

A ripe scholar, a vigorous writer, a splendid orator, a 
brave soldier, a true gentleman, an accomplished statesman, 
a sturdy champion, a proud, pure patriot, a lover of liberty, 
a hero : this is the Jefferson Davis that history will cherish. 
And while we can scarce quite say with the editor of the 
New York Su7i, that "he outlived enmity and personal 
detraction," we can endorse the liberality and truth of his 
opinion that, ' ' he lived long enough to see the political 
atmosphere purged of prejudice and rancor, and to forecast 
in the candid attitude of Northern contemporaries the sober 
and unbiassed judgment of posterity." , -^ 

I hope this book will aid in the better understanding of 
Jefferson Davis, and in the further amelioration of the feel- 
ings engendered by an apparently unavoidable and unhappy 
strife. I look upon those men who attempt to instruct the 
rising generation in hatred and animosity, as the worst 
enemies of their country and of the human race. There is 
a chivalry of peace higher than the chivalry of war. The 
people who are to live together must live in mutual self- 
respect or in mutual unhappiness. We cannot lower the 



xviii INTRODUCTORY. 

caste of a section without lowering the caste of the coun- 
try. 

If the people of America would devote the time given to 
detractions to the encouragement of each other, which flows 
from the prompt recognition of virtues and their just praise, 
our country would lack in nothing for the prosperity and 
welfare of its people. If that prosperity and welfare are 
arrested or impeded, it will be by nothing more than through 
the agency of bigotry and partisanry, who refuse to see good 
in aught that comes in conflict with immediate interests. 

Generous thought and generous speech are as essential to 
progress as a sound currency, or a sound system of taxation. 
No country is better fitted to produce them than our own ; 
and in them it will find heralds of the highest destiny. 

John W. Daniel. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS was by birth a Kentuckian. 
He was born on the 3d day of June, 1808, 
in Christian County, but in a part of it that 
afterwards became Todd County. About his birth- 
place has grown up the village of Fairview, and on 
the exact spot now stands the Fairview Baptist 
Church, which received the ground by gift from the 
distinguished man that there began his being. His 
father was Samuel Davis, a native of Georgia, who 
removed from that State to Kentucky not many 
years after the War of the Revolution, in which he 
had rendered gallant service as a captain of infantry. 
When Jefferson was less than ten years old, his 
father l^ft Kentucky and settled in Mississippi, then 
a territory. Thus early in the history of Mississippi. 
and in the life of Davis, was formed a relation that 
continued through many years, and became to botli 
alike a matter of highest pride. After preparatory 
training at a neighboring academy, young Davis 



4 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

returned to his native State for the purpose of 
studying in Transylvania University. He remained 
in this institution until 1824, when he was appointed 
by President Monroe to a cadetship at West Point. 
Here he had R. E. Lee for a class-mate. The two 
were destined for another companionship of which 
neither had, at this time, the faintest dream. Would 
we see Jefferson Davis as a cadet ? He is thus de- 
scribed : " He was distinguished in the corps for his 
manly bearing, his high-toned and lofty character. 
His figure was very soldierlike and rather robust; 
his step springy, resembling the tread of an Indian 
brave on the war-path." He was graduated at the 
military academy in 1828, when he was just twenty 
years of age. His graduation gave him a second- 
lieutenancy in the regular army ; and, being assigned 
to the infantry, he was sent to perform service on 
the northwestern frontier. He won distinction, and 
was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant of dra- 
goons. It is said that the savages with whom Lieu- 
tenant Davis had to deal were awed by his intrepidity 
and won by his kindness. After a military service 
of seven years on the frontier, he resigned his com- 
mission. 

His resignation from the army brought him back 
to Mississippi in 1835. He soon after married a 
daughter of General (then Colonel) Zachary Taylor, 
and retiring to a farm in Warren County, he gave 



POLITICAL CAPEER. 5 

himself to cotton planting and to studies in favorite 
lines of investigation. This seclusion, continuing 
through eight years, he was the more disposed to 
prolong by reason of the fact that almost at the very 
commencement of it death deprived him of his wife. 
Mr. Davis' political career may be said to have begun 
in 1843. During that year he participated in local 
politics, the next year he was chosen a presidential 
elector, and in 1845 he was elected to the United 
States House of Representatives. When he took 
his seat in Congress he found great men there. To 
say nothing of the Senate, he met in the House 
Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois ; R. M. T. Hunter, 
of Virginia ; Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee ; and 
John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts. But con- 
tact with such men placed him at no disadvantage. 
He was a prominent participant in the discussions 
that arose during the session, and always commanded 
the respectful attention of his associates. His senti- 
ments were eminently patriotic and national. Speak- 
ing on the Oregon question, he said : " It is as the 
representative of a high-spirited and patriotic people 
that I am called on to resist this war clamor. My 
constituents need no such excitements to prepare 
their hearts for all that patriotism demands. When- 
ever the honor of the country demands redress; 
whenever its territory is invaded . . \ Mississippi 
will come. And whether the question be one of 



6 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Northern or Southern, Eastern or Western aggres- 
sion, we will not stop to count the cost, but act as 
becomes the descendants of those who, in the War 
of the Revolution, engaged in unequal strife to aid 
our brethren of the North in redressing their in- 
juries." 

Mr. John Savage, in " On Living Representative 
Men," sajs : " John Quincj Adams had a habit of 
always observing new members. He would sit 
near them on the occasion of their Congressional de- 
but, closely eyeing and attentively listening if the 
speech pleased, but quickly departing if it did not. 
When Davis arose in the House the ex-President 
took a seat close by. Davis proceeded, and Adams 
did not move. The one continued speaking and the 
other listening ; and those who knew Mr. Adams's 
habit were fully aware that the new member had 
deeply impressed him. At the close of the speech 
the ' Old Man Eloquent ' crossed over to some friends 
and said, 'That young man is no ordinary man. 
He will make his mark yet.' " 

The war with Mexico was now going on, and Gen- 
eral Taylor, with his valiant little army, was already 
on the Rio Grande. Mississippi was aroused, and, as 
one result, a volunteer regiment was raised in and 
about Yicksburg. 

These soldiers enlisted as the First Regiment of 
Mississippi Volunteers, and afterwards became fa- 



COLONEL DAVIS. 7 

raous as the " Mississippi Rifles." At the organiza- 
tion, June, 1846, Mr. Davis was elected colonel. 
When the information reached him, he promptly re- 
signed his seat in Congress, and hastened to join 
the regiment, which he overtook in New Orleans. 
From this time Jeflerson Davis may be considered as 
fairly started on that career which has sent his name 
over the civilized world. 

COLONEL DAVIS, 

taking command of his regiment, moved rapidly 
towards the scene of war, and reported to General 
Taylor at Camargo, just across the Rio Grande. 
The battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma 
had already been fought, and the army was now 
about to march against Monterey. After the ar- 
rival of the Mississippians several weeks were spent 
in preparations ; but towards the last of August the 
advance movement began. On the 19th of Sep- 
tember, 1846, General Taylor appeared before the city, 
on the 21st the attack commenced, and on the 24th 
the garrison of ten thousand Mexicans surrendered. 
As this result was accomplished by an attacking 
force of six thousand five hundred men, it can be at 
once assumed that the battle of Monterey brought 
out some of the best qualities of the American sol- 
dier. Among all those that showed skill and gallan- 
try, Colonel Davis stands conspicuous. His own ac- 



8 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

count, taken from BelforcTs Magazine, of the opera- 
tions, claims less for himself than others would ac- 
cord to him; nevertheless, his own statement is 
given : 

" In an attack on Monterey General Taylor divided 
his force, sending one part of it by a circuitous road 
to attack the city from the west, while he decided to 
lead in person the attack on the east. The Missis- 
sippi Regiment advanced to the relief of a force 
which had attacked Fort Lenaria, but had been re- 
pulsed before the Mississippians arrived. They car- 
ried the redoubt, and the fort which was in the rear 
of it surrendered. The next day our force on the 
west side carried successfully the height on which 
stood the Bishop's Palace, which commanded the 
city. 

"On the third day the Mississippians advanced 
from the fort which they held, through lanes and 
gardens, skirmishing and driving the enemy before 
them until they reached a two-story house at the 
corner of the Grand Plaza. Here they were joined 
by a regiment of Texans, and from the windows of 
this house they opened fire on the artillery and such 
other troops as were in view. But, to get a better 
position for firing on the principal building of the 
Grand Plaza, it was necessary to cross the street, 
which was swept by canister and grape, rattling on 
the pavement like hail ; and as the street was very 



ATTACK ON MONTEREY. 9 

narrow it was determined to construct a flying bar- 
ricade. Some long timbers were found, and, with 
pack saddles and boxes, which served the purpose, 
a barricade was formed. 

"Here occurred an incident to which I have since 
frequently referred with pride. In breaking open a 
quartermaster's store-house to get supplies for this 
barricade, the men found bundles of the much- 
prized Mexican blankets, and also of very service- 
able shoes and pack-saddles. The pack-saddles were 
freely taken as good material for the proposed barri- 
cade ; and one of my men, as his shoes were broken 
and stones had hurt his feet, asked my permission to 
take a pair from one of the boxes. This, of course, 
was freely accorded ; but not one of the very valu- 
able and much-prized Mexican blankets was taken. 

"About the time that the flying barricade was com- 
pleted, arrangements were made by the Texans and 
Mississippians to occupy houses on both sides of the 
street for the purpose of more efiective fire into the 
Grand Plaza. It having been deemed necessary to 
increase our force, the Mississippi sergeant-major 
was sent back for some companies of the First Mis- 
sissippi, which had remained behind. He returned 
with the statement that the enemy was behind us, 
that all our troops had been withdrawn, and that 
orders had been three times sent to me to return. 
Governor Henderson, of Texas, had accompanied the 



10 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Texan troops, and on submitting to him the ques- 
tion what we should do under the message, he real- 
ized — as was very plain — that it was safer to remain 
where we were than — our supports having been 
withdrawn — to return across streets where we were 
liable to be fired on by artillery, and across open 
grounds, where cavalry might be expected to attack 
us. But, he added, he supposed the orders came 
from the general-in-chief, and we were bound to 
obey them. So we made dispositions to retire 
quietly; but, in passing the first square we found 
that our movement had been anticipated, and that 
a battery of artillery was posted to command the 
street. The arrangement made by me was that I 
should go first; if only one gun was fired at me, 
then another man should follow ; and so on, another 
and another, until a volley should be fired, and then 
all of them should rush rapidly across before the 
guns could be reloaded. In this manner the men 
got across with little loss. We then made our way 
to the suburb, where we found that an ofiicer of in- 
fimtry, with two companies and a section of artil- 
lery, had been posted to wait for us, and, in case of 
emergency, to aid our retreat. 

" Early next morning General Ampudia, command- 
ing the Mexican force, sent in a flag and asked for 
a conference with a view to capitulation. General 
Taylor acceded to the proposition, and appointed 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. H 

General "Worth, Governor Henderson and myself 
commissioners to arrange the terms of capitulation. 
General Taylor received the city of Monterey, with 
supplies, much needed by his army, and shelter for 
the wounded. The enemy gained only the privilege 
of retiring peacefully, a privilege which, if it had 
not been accorded, they had the power to take by 
any one of the three roads open to them." 

Next came the battle of Buena Vista, where Gen. 
Taylor's little army of five thousand men received 
the attack of twenty thousand Mexicans, led by 
Santa Anna. Here again Jefferson Davis and his 
riflemen rendered most distinguished service, and 
helped to win one of the most remarkable victories 
of modern times. A writer thus narrates the most 
prominent incidents of the battle : " The battle had 
been raging some time with fluctuating fortunes, and 
was setting against the Americans, when Gen. Tay- 
lor, with Col. Davis and others, arrived on the field. 
Several regiments were in full retreat . . . Col. 
Davis rode forward to examine the position of the 
enemy, and concluding that the best way to arrest 
our fugitives would be to make a bold demonstration, 
he resolved at once to make a new attack. It was 
a resolution bold almost tp rashness, but the emer- 
gency was pressing. ... A deep ravine sepa- 
rated the combatants. Leaping into it, the Missis- 
sippians soon appeared on the other side, and with a 



12 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

shout that was heard over the battle-field, they 
poured in a well-directed fire, and rushed upon the 
enemy. Their deadly aim and wild enthusiasm 
were irresistible. The Mexicans fled in confusion 
to their reserves, and Davis seized the commanding 
position they had occupied. . . . Afterwards a 
brigade of lancers, one thousand strong, were seen 
approaching at a gallop, in beautiful array, with 
sounding bugles and fluttering pennons. It was an 
appalling spectacle, but not a man flinched from his 
position. The time between our devoted band and 
eternity seemed brief indeed. But conscious that 
the eye of the army was upon them, that the honor 
of Mississippi was at stake, and knowing that, if 
they gave way or were ridden down, the unprotected 
batteries in the rear, upon which the fortunes of the 
day depended, would be captured, each man resolved 
to die in his place sooner than retreat. . . . Im- 
pressed with this extraordinary firmness where they 
had expected panic and flight, the lancers advanced 
more deliberately, as though they saw, for the first 
time, the dark shadow of the fate that was impend- 
ing over them. Col. Davis had thrown his men into 
the form of a re-entering angle (familiarl}'' known as 
the famous J[_ movement), both flanks resting on 
ravines, the lancers coming down on the intervening 
ridge. This exposed them to a converging fire, and 
the moment they came within rifle range each man 



COLONEL DAVIS WOUNDED. 13 

Singled out his object, and the whole head of the 
column fell. A more deadly fire never was delivered, 
and the brilliant array recoiled and retreated in dis- 
may. Shortly afterwards the Mexicans having con- 
centrated a large force on the right for their final 
attack, Colonel Davis was ordered in that direction. 
His regiment had been in action all day, exhausted 
by thirst and fatigue, much reduced by the carnage 
of the morning engagement, and many in the ranks 
suffering from wounds, yet the noble fellows moved 
at double-quick time. Bowless' little band of Indiana 
volunteers still acted with them. After marchino: 
several hundred yards they perceived the Mexican in- 
fantry advancing in three lines upon Bragg's battery, 
which, though entirely unsupported, held its position 
with a resolution worthy of its fame. The pressure 
upon him stimulated the Mississippians. They in- 
creased their speed, and when the enemy were with- 
in one hundred yards of the battery and confident of 
its capture, they poured in upon them a raking and 
destructive fire. This broke their right line, and the 
rest soon gave way and fell back precipitately. Here 
Colonel Davis was severely wounded." This pain- 
ful injury was received earl}' in the day; but, de- 
spite his sufferings. Colonel Davis remained with his 
men until the end of battle. It should be noted that 
among the killed at Buena Vista was Henry Clay, 
Jr., son of the illustrious Kentucky statesman. 



14 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

SENATOR DAVIS. 

Jefferson Davis was twice a member of the United 
States Senate — from 1847-51 and then from 1857 to 
1861. Between these two terms came his candidacy 
for the Gubernatorial office in Mississippi and his 
service as Secretary of War ; nevertheless for con- 
venience his whole senatorial life will now be treated. 
Colonel Davis returned on crutches from Mexico. 
As the maimed hero crossed his country's border he 
was met with two opportunities. One was President 
Polk's commission, making him Brigadier-General 
of volunteers, and the other the appointment of the 
Governor of Mississippi, to fill a vacancy in the 
United States Senate caused by the death of one of 
the Mississippi Senators. The first he declined on 
the ground that volunteers are but State Militia, 
and that, therefore, militia officers must receive 
their commissions from their respective States. The 
second he accepted, and thus secured for himself a 
field for which both nature and training had fitted 
him. When the Legislature came together, in 1848, 
they retained his services as Senator, and the Legis- 
lature of 1850 re-elected him to that exalted posi- 
tion. Concerning the period of Mr. Davis' senatorial 
life, from 1847 to 1851, he, himself, says : 

" In the United States Senate I was Chairman of 
the Military Committee, and I also took an active 



SENATOR DAVIS. 15 

part in the debates on the Compromise measures of 
1850, frequently opposing Senator Douglas, of Illi- 
nois, in his theory of squatter sovereignty, and advo- 
cating, as a means of pacification, the extension of 
the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific." 

It will be interesting to note what were Mr. Davis' 
views at this time concerning the Union and its per- 
petuity. In a speech on the compromise measures 
of 1850 he thus expressed himself: 

" Give to each section of the Union justice ; give 
to every citizen of the United States his rights as 
guaranteed by the Constitution ; leave this Confeder- 
acy to rest upon that basis from which arose the fra- 
ternal feelings of the people, and I for one have no 
fear of its perpetuity ; none that it will survive be- 
yond the limits of human speculation, expanding 
and hardening with the lapse of time, to extend its 
blessings to ages unnumbered, and a people innum- 
erable ; to include within its empire all the useful 
products of the earth, and exemplify the capacity of 
a confederacy with general, well-defined powers, to 
extend inimitably without impairing its harmony or 
its strength." It was during this period that Mr. 
Davis was brought into association with Henry Clay, 
who still lingered in the Senate, but whose life was 
verging to its end. Two facts prevented the closest 
intimacy in antagonism of political views and dis- 
parity of age. But their personal relations were 



16 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

very pleasant. Mr. Clay could never forget that 
Mr. Davis and his son Henry were in the same army 
at Buena Vista, and that on that field from which 
the one brought away imperishable renown, the 
other lost his life. The Kentucky statesman called 
Mr. Davis " my young friend." On one occasion he 
said^ " Come, my young friend, join us in these 
measures of pacification. Let us rally Congress and 
the people to their support, and they will assure to 
the country thirty years of peace. By that time " 
(turning to Jno. M. Berrien, who was a participant 
in the interview) " you and I will be under the sod 
and my young friend may then have trouble again." 
" No," said Davis, " I cannot consent to transfer to 
posterity a question which is as much ours as theirs, 
when it is evident that the sectional inequality, as 
it will be greater then than now, will render hope- 
less the attainment of justice." Mr. Clay said one 
day to Mr. Davis : " My poor boy, in writing home 
from Mexico, usually occupied about one-half of his 
letters in praising you." In the course of a heated 
public debate in the Senate, Mr. Clay used the fol- 
lowing language : " My friend from Mississippi — 
and I trust he will permit me to call him ray friend, 
for between us there is a tie, the nature of which 
we both well understand." As the sentence fell 
from the lips of the aged Senator, his eyes were 
filled with tears. In 1851 terminated the first 



SENATOR DAVIS. 17 

period of Mr. Davis' senatorial career. How he 
came to resign his seat and what immediately fol- 
lowed he tells us in his autobiography. 

" The canvass for Governor commenced that year. 
The candidate of the Democratic party was by his 
opponents represented to hold extreme opinions — 
in other words, to be a disunionist. For, although 
he was a man of high character and had served the 
country well in peace and war, this supposition was 
so artfully cultivated that, though the Democratic 
party was estimated to be about eight thousand in 
majority, when the election occurred in September 
the Democratic candidates for a convention were 
defeated by a majority of over seven thousand, and 
the Democratic candidate for Governor withdrew. 

" The election for Governor was to occur in No- 
vember, and I was called on to take the place 
vacated by the candidate who had withdrawn from 
the canvass. It was a forlorn hope, especially as 
my health had been impaired by labors in the 
Summer canvass, and there was not time before the 
approaching election to make such a canvass as 
would be needed to reform the ranks of the Democ- 
racy. However, as a duty to the party I accepted 
the position, and made as active a campaign as time 
permitted, with the result that the majority against 
the party was reduced to less than one thousand. 
From this time I remained engaged in my quiet farm 



13 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

labors until the nomination of Franklin "Pierce, 
when I went out to advocate his election, having 
formed a very high opinion of him as a statesman 
and a patriot, from observations of him in 1837 and 
1838, when he was in the United States Senate." 

Mr. Davis re-entered the Senate in December, 
1857. He had been elected by the Mississippi 
Legislature even before the expiration of his time 
of service as Secretary of War. When Mr. Davis 
left the Senate, he left the body convulsed with the 
questions growing out of slavery, and when he 
returned to it the same storm was raging, only it 
had increased in fury. He was found always where 
the tempest was wildest, as he claimed, not to in- 
voke the winds, but to save the ship. Mr. Davis 
was known to belong to the State's Rights school 
of politics, and he at once came to the front as a 
leader of those who took a State's Rights view of 
the nature of the Union established by the Consti- 
tution. This doctrine he vigorously defended, 
whatever might be the quarter from which it was 
assailed. The attack might come from Fessenden, 
the Republican, or from Douglas, the Democrat ; in 
either case he was its ready and able champion. 
A newspaper correspondent draws a portrait of the 
man as he appeared in the Senate during the ever 
memorable winter of 1859-60. Along with it are 
given pictures of two of his colleagues and intimate 



SENATOR DAVIS. 19 

political associates at the time ; but we shall be able 
to see Davis all the more clearly by the contrast 
with Hunter and Toombs. 

THE SOUTHERN TRIUMVIRATI^ 

Washington City, January 21. — "Yesterday, 
when Hale was speaking, the right side of the 
chamber was empty, with the exception of a group 
of three who sat near the centre of the vacant 
space. This remarkable group, which wore the 
air if not the ensigns of power, authority and pub- 
lic care, was composed of Senators Davis, Hunter 
and Toombs. They were engaged in an earnest 
colloquy, which, however, was foreign to the argu- 
ment Hale was elaborating; for though the con- 
nection of their words was broken before it reached 
the gallery, their voices were distinctly audible, 
and gave signs of their abstraction. They were 
thinking aloud. If they had met together, under 
the supervision of some artist gifted with the faculty 
of illustrating history and character by attitude 
and expression, who designed to put them, in fresco, 
on the walls of the new Senate chamber, the com- 
bination could not have been more appropriately 
arranged than chance arranged it on this occasion. 
Toombs sits among the opposition on the left. Hun- 
ter and Davis on the right, and the fact that the 
two first came to Davis' seat — the one gravitating 



20 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

to it from a remote, the other from a near point — 
may be held to indicate which of the three is the 
preponderating body in the system if preponder- 
ance there be, and whose figure should occupy the 
foreground of the picture if any precedence is to 
be recorded. Davis sat erect and composed ; Hun- 
ter, listening, rested his head on his hand; and 
Toombs, inclining forward, was speaking vehe- 
mently. Their respective attitudes were no bad 
illustration of their individuality. Davis impressed 
the spectator, who observed the easy but authori- 
tative bearing with which he put aside or as- 
sented to Toombs' suggestions, with the notion of 
some slight superiority, some hardly acknowledged 
leadership; and Hunter's attentiveness and impas- 
sibility were characteristic of his nature, for his 
profundity of intellect wears the guise of stolidity, 
and his continuous study that of inertia; while 
Toombs' quick utterance and restless head bespoke 
his nervous temperament and activity of mind. 
But, though each is different from either of the 
others, the three have several attributes in common. 
^They are equally eminent as statesmen and de- 
baters ; they are devoted to the same cause ; they 
are equals in rank and rivals in ambition ; and they 
are about the same age, and neither one — let young 
America take notice — wears either beard or mus- 
tache. I come again to the traits that distinguish 



SENATOR DAVIS. 21 

them from each other. In face and form, Davis 
represents the Norman type with singular fidelity, 
if my conception of that type be correct. He is 
tall and sinewy, with fair hair, grey eyes, which 
are clear rather than bright, high forehead, straight 
nose, thin, compressed lips, and pointed chin. His 
cheek bones are hollow, and the vicinity of his 
mouth is deeply furrowed with intersecting lines. 
Leanness of face, length and sharpness of feature, 
length of limb, and intensity of expression, rendered 
acute by angular, facial outline, are the general 
characteristics of his appearance." 

Events now moved rapidly towards their cul- 
mination. In November, 1860, Abraham Lincoln 
was elected President of the United States. He 
was thought by the Southern people to hold views 
and intentions hostile to their interests and insti- 
tutions — interests and institutions that they claimed 
the general government had no right to deal with, 
and which had been left by the Constitution to the 
management of the respective States. South Caro- 
lina was the first State to withdraw from the Union, 
having adopted her Ordinance of Secession on De- 
cember 20, 1860. Mississippi was but three weeks 
behind her ; for Mississippi went out on the 9th day 
of January, 1861. So soon as Mr. Davis received 
formal notice that his State had passed her act of 
secession, he in perfect consistency with views long 



22 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

held and frequently proclaimed, considered his 
functions in the United States Senate were at an end ; 
and, accordingly, he withdrew from that body on 
January 21, 1861. Before doing so, however, he 
delivered the valedictory address given below. It 
seems proper to give the speech in full, in order 
that every reader may judge for himself as to Mr. 
Davis' argument in justification of Mississippi, and 
as to the spirit he carried with him from the Senate 
to the new toils and responsibilities to which he 
would presently be called. 

"I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of an- 
nouncing to the Senate that I have satisfactory 
evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a solemn 
ordinance of her people, in convention assembled, 
has declared her separation from the* United States. 
Under these circumstances, of course, my functions 
are terminated here. It has seemed to me proper, 
however, that I should appear in the Senate to 
announce that fact to my associates, and I will say 
but very Httle more. The occasion does not invite 
me to go into argument ; and my physical condition 
would not permit me to do so, if otherwise ; and 
yet it seems to become me to say something on the 
part of the State I here represent, on an occasion 
so solemn as this. 

" It is known to Senators who have served with 



SENATOR DAVIS. 23 

me here, that 1 have, for many years, advocated, 
as an essential attribute of State sovereignty, the 
right of a State to secede from the Union. There- 
fore, if I had not believed there was justifiable 
cause ; if I had thought that Mississippi was acting 
without sufficient provocation, or without an exist- 
ing necessity, I should still, under my theory of the 
Government, because of my allegiance to the State 
of which I am a citizen, have been bound by her 
action. I, however, may be permitted to say that I 
do think she has justifiable cause, and I approve 
of her act. I conferred with her people before that 
act was taken, counseled them then that if the 
state of things which they apprehended should exist 
when the Convention met, they should take the 
action which they have now adopted. 

" I hope none who hear me will confound this 
expression of mine with the advocacy of the right 
of a State to remain in the Union, and to disregard 
its constitutional obligations by the nullification of 
the law. Such is not my theory. Nullification 
and secession, so often confounded, are, indeed, 
antagonistic principles. Nullification is a remedy 
which it is sought to apply within the Union, and 
against the agent of the States. It is only to be 
justified when the agent has violated his constitu- 
tional obligations, and a State, assuming to judge 
for itself, denies the right of the agent thus to act, 



24 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

and appeals to the other States of the Union for 
a decision; but when the States themselves, and 
when the people of the States have so acted as to 
convince us that they will not regard our consti- 
tutional rights, then, and then for the first time, 
arises the doctrine of secession in its practical 
application. 

" A great man, who now reposes with his fathers, 
and who has often been arraigned for a want of 
fealty to the Union, advocated the doctrine of 
nullification because it preserved the Union. It 
was because of his deep-seated attachment to the 
Union — his determination to find some remedy for 
existing ills short of a severance of the ties which 
bound South Carolina to the other States, that Mr. 
Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullification, 
which he proclaimed to be peaceful — to be within 
the limits of State power, not to disturb the Union, 
but only to be a means of bringing the agent before 
the tribunal of the States for their judgment. 

" Secession belongs to a different class of reme- 
dies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the 
States are Sovereign. There was a time when none 
denied it. I hope the time may come again, when 
a better comprehension of the theory of our Gov- 
ernment, and the inalienable rights of the people 
of the States, will prevent any one from denying 
that each State is a sovereign, and thus may re- 



SENATOR DAVIS. 25 

claim the grants which it has made to any agent 
whomsoever. 

" I, therefore, say I concur in the action of the 
people of Mississippi, believing it to be necessary 
and proper, and should have been bound by their 
action if my belief had been otherwise; and this 
brings me to the important point which I wish, on 
this last occasion, to present to the Senate. It is 
by this confounding of nullification and secession 
that the name of a great man, whose ashes now 
mingle with his mother earth, has been evoked to 
justify coercion against a seceded State. The 
phrase, ' to execute the laws,' was an expression 
which General Jackson applied to the case of a 
State refusing to obey the laws while yet a member 
of the Union. That is not the case which is now 
presented. The laws are to be executed over the 
United States, and upon the people of the United 
States. They have no relation to any foreign 
country. It is a perversion of terms — at least it is 
a great misapprehension of the case — which cites 
that expression for application to a State which has 
withdrawn from the Union. You may make war 
on a foreign State. If it be the purpose of gentle- 
men they may make war against a State which 
has withdrawn from the Union ; but there are no 
laws of the United States to be executed within 
the limits of a seceded State. A State, finding 



26 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

herself in the condition in which Mississippi has 
judged she is — in which her safety requires that 
she should provide for the maintenance of her rights 
out of the Union — surrenders all benefits (and they 
are known to be many), deprives herself of the 
advantages (and they are known to be great), severs 
all the ties of affection (and they are close and en- 
dearing), which have bound her to the Union, and 
thus divesting herself of every benefit — taking upon 
herself every burden — she claims to be exempt 
from any power to execute the laws of the United 
States within her limits. 

" I well remember an occasion when Massachusetts 
was arraigned before the bar of the Senate, and 
when the doctrine of coercion was rife, and to be 
applied against her, because of the rescue of a 
fugitive slave in Boston. My opinion then was the 
same that it is now. Not in a spirit of egotism, 
but to show that I am not influenced, in my opin- 
ion, because the case is my own, I refer to that time 
and that occasion, as containing the opinion which 
I then entertained, and on which my present con- 
duct is based. I then said that, if Massachusetts, 
following her through a stated line of conduct, 
choose to take the last step which separates her 
from the Union, it is her right to go, and I will 
neither vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her 
back; but will say to her, God speed in memory of 



SENATOR DAVIS. 27 

the kind associations which once existed between 
her and the other States. 

"It has been a conviction of pressing necessity — 
it has been a behef that we are to be deprived, in 
the Union, of the rights which our fathers be- 
queathed us — which has brought Mississippi into 
her present decision. She has heard proclaimed 
the theory that all men are created free and equal, 
and this made the basis of attack upon her social 
institutions; and the sacred Declaration of Inde- 
pendence has been invoked to maintain the position 
of the equality of the races. The Declaration of 
Independence is to be construed by the circum- 
stances and purposes for which it was made. The 
communities were declaring their independence ; 
the people of those communities were asserting that 
no man was born (to use the words of Mr. Jefferson) 
booted and spurred, to ride over the rest of man- 
kind; that men were created equal — meaning the 
men of a political community; that there was no 
divine right to rule ; that no man inherited the 
right to govern ; that there were no classes by 
which power and place descended to families, but 
that all stations were equally within the grasp of 
each member of the body politic. These were the 
great principles they announced; these were the 
purposes for which they made their declaration ; 
these were the ends to which their enunciation waa 



28 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

directed. They have no reference to the slave; 
else, how happened it, that, among the items of 
arraignment against George III. was, that he en- 
deavored to do just what the North has been 
endeavoring of late to do, to stir up insurrection 
among our slaves. Had the Declaration announced 
that the negroes were free and equal, how was the 
prince to be arraigned for raising up insurrection 
among them ? And how was this to be enumerated 
among the high crimes which caused the colonies 
to sever their connection with the mother country ? 
When our constitution was formed, the same idea 
was rendered more palpable; for there we find 
provision made for that very class of persons as 
property ; they were not put upon the footing of 
equality with white men — not even upon that of 
paupers and convicts ; but so far as representation 
was concerned, were discriminated against as a 
lower caste, only to be represented in the numerical 
proportion of three-fifths. 

" Then, Senators, we recur to the compact which 
binds us together ; we recur to the principles upon 
which our Government was founded; and when 
you deny them, and when you deny to us the right 
to withdraw from a government, which, thus per- 
verted, threatens to be destructive to our rights, we 
but tread in the path of our fathers when we pro- 
claim our independence, and take the hazard. 



SENATOR DAVIS. 29 

This is done, not in hostility to others — not to in- 
jure any section of the country — not even for our 
own pecuniary benefit; but from the high and 
solemn motive of defending and protecting the 
rights we inherited, and which it is our duty to 
transmit unshorn to our children. 

" I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the general 
feeling of my constituents towards you. I am sure 
I feel no hostility towards you, Senators from the 
North. I am sure there is not one of you, what- 
ever sharp discussion there may have been between 
us, to whom I cannot now say, in the presence of 
my God, I wish you well ; and such, I am sure, is 
the feeling of the people I represent towards those 
you represent. I, therefore, feel that I but express 
their desire, when I say I hope, and they hope, 
for peaceable relations with you, though we must 
part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in 
the future, as they have been in the past, if you so 
will. The reverse may bring disaster on every 
portion of the country; and if you will have it thus, 
we will invoke the God of our fathers, who deliv- 
ered us from the power of the lion, to protect us 
from the ravages of the bear ; and thus, putting our 
trust in God, and in our firm hearts and strong 
arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may. 

" In the course of my services here, associated, 
at different times, with a great variety of Senators, 



30 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

I see now around me some with whom I have 
served long; there have been points of collision, 
but whatever offence there has been to me, I leave 
here, — I carry with me no hostile remembrance. 
Whatever offense I have given, which has not been 
redressed, or for which satisfaction has not been 
demanded, I have. Senators, in this hour of our 
parting, to offer you my apology for any pain 
which, in the heat of discussion, I have inflicted. 
I go hence unincumbered of the remembrance of 
any injury received, and having discharged the 
duty of making the only reparation in my power 
for any injury offered. 

" Mr. President and Senators, having made the 
announcement which the occasion seemed to me to 
require, it only remains for me to bid you a final 
adieu." 

Thus a stately and striking form that had long 
been familiar to those visiting the Senate disap- 
peared from its precincts forever. 

It is proper here to add a short clipping that 
shows the impression made by Mr. Davis upon the 
employes of the Senate. 

Mr. E. V. Murphy, of the Senate stenographic 
corps, knew Mr. Davis when he was a Senator, and 
says he recollects particularly how kind Mr. Davis 
was to all the employes about the Senate. He 



SECRETARY DAVIS. 31 

knew them all personally, and would ask after 
them and after their families where they had any. 
He complimented the stenographic reports of the 
Senate. He was a favorite with all the employes 
for another reason, and that was because he would 
always endeavor to secure extra compensation for 
them. 

SECRETARY DAVIS. 

As we have already seen, the end of the year 

1851 found Mr. Davis living quietly on his 
plantation in Mississippi, a retirement resulting 
from his unsuccessful canvass for the office of Gov- 
ernor of the State. The Presidential election of 

1852 called Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, to 
the chief-magistracy of the nation. He was the 
nominee of the Democratic party, and during the 
canvass Mr. Davis supported him most heartily. 
President-elect Pierce offered Mr. Davis a place in 
his Cabinet, which he at first declined, but after- 
wards the portfolio of War was accepted. In the 
same Cabinet Wm. L. Marcy was Secretary of 
State, and Caleb Cushing was Attorney-General. 
Mr. Davis thus speaks of his administration of the 
affairs of the department entrusted to him : 

'* During these four years, I proposed the intro- 
duction of camels for service on the Western plains, 
a suggestion which was adopted. I also introduced 
an improved system of infantry tactics ; effected the 



32 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

substitution of iron for wood in gun-carriages; se- 
cured rifled muskets and rifles and the use of Minnie 
balls, and advocated the increase of the defenses of 
the sea coast by heavy guns and the use of large- 
grain powder. 

" While in the Senate I had advocated, as a mili- 
tary necessity and as a means of preserving the 
Pacific Territory to the Union, the construction of a 
military railway across the continent; and, as Sec- 
retary of "VYar, I was put in charge of the surveys 
of the various routes proposed. Perhaps for a simi- 
lar reason — my previous action in the Senate — I 
was also put in charge of the extension of the United 
States Capitol. 

" The administration of Mr. Pierce presents the 
single instance of an Executive whose Cabinet wit- 
nessed no change of persons during the whole 
term." 

The following is clipped from the New York Her- 
ald : 

" The only man now living who served under 
Secretary Davis' immediate administration in the 
Secretary's office is Major Wm. B. Lee, who was one 
of the seven clerks then forming the force in that 
division. He is still employed in the same office. 
He remembers Mr. Davis very well. He said this 
morning : — ' He was one of the best Secretaries of 
"VYar who ever served. He was a kind, social man, 



SECRETARY DAVIS. 33 

very considerate and pleasant to serve under. I 
never heard a complaint from one of the clerks. 
Socially, he was a most charming man, officially, 
very pleasant. He was a warm friend and a bitter 
enemy. I knew him many years, and as a man I 
found him a very good friend. He was a regular 
bull-dog when he formed an opinion, for he would 
never let go. About the only very important event 
of his administration was his quarrel with General 
Scott, which was very bitter, and caused a great 
deal of hard feeling.' 

" Speaking of the time when Mr. Davis was Sec- 
retary of War, in the administration of President 
Pierce, General Montgomery C. Meigs, formerly 
quartermaster-general of the army, said : — ' My ac- 
quaintance with Mr. Divis began upon the occasion 
of my submitting to him the plans for the introduc- 
tion of water to the city of Washington. The Act 
of Congress providing for a supply of water to the 
city, placed the direction of the work in the hands 
of the President, who devolved it upon the Secretary 
of War as his representative. I was thus brought 
into a close intimacy with Mr. Davis and became 
much attached to him, and I think that this feeling 
was reciprocated in some measure by himself Mr. 
Davis was a most courteous and amiable man in 
those days, and I found intercourse with him very 

agreeable. He was a man, too, of marked ability, 
3 



34 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

and I quite looked up to him and regarded hjm as 
one of the great men of the time.' " 

PRESIDENT DAVIS. 

When Mr. Davis retired from the United States 
Senate on January 21, 1861, he went imme- 
diately to Mississippi. While journeying to his 
home he was appointed commander-in-chief of the 
forces that the State was raising to meet a conflict 
that seemed inevitable. He had not time to proceed 
far with the organization before he received notifica- 
tion that he had been elected Provisional President 
of the Confederate States. He reluctantly accepted 
the office, and was inaugurated at Montgomery, 
Alabama, on the 18th day of February, 1861. 
With what sentiments and purposes he entered upon 
his duties may be gathered from the following quo- 
tations taken from his inaugural address : 

" I enter upon the duties of the office to which I 
have been chosen, with the hope that the beginning 
of our career as a Confederacy may not be 
obstructed by hostile opposition to our enjoyment of 
the separate existence and independence which we 
have asserted, and, with the blessing of Providence, 
intend to maintain. Our present condition, achieved 
in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations, 
illustrates the American idea that government rests 
on the consent of the governed, and that it is the 




JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

(From a Photograph taken when President of the Confederate States.' 



PRESIDENT DAVIS. 35 

right of the people to alter or abolish governments 
whenever they become destructive of the ends for 
which they were established. 

" Sustained by the consciousness that the transi- 
tion from the former Union to the present Confed- 
eracy has not proceeded from a disregard on our 
part of just obligations, or any failure to perform 
any Constitutional duty; moved by no interest or 
passion to invade the rights of others ; anxious to 
cultivate peace and commerce with all nations, if 
we may not hope to avoid war, we may at least ex- 
pect that posterity will acquit us of having need- 
lessly engaged in it. 

" Reverently let us invoke of the God of our 
fathers to guide and protect us in our efforts to per- 
petuate the principles which, by His blessing, they 
were able to vindicate, establish and transmit to 
their posterity, and, with a continuance of His favor 
ever gratefully acknowledged, we may hopefully 
look forward to success, to peace, and to prosperity." 

Great events now followed each other in rapid 
succession. On March 4th, President Lincoln was 
inaugurated. On the next day, Messrs. Crawford 
and Forsyth arrived in Washington, as Commission- 
ers from President Davis "to negotiate friendly 
relations between the United States and the Confed- 
erate States of America, and for the settlement of 
all questions of disagreement between the two govern- 



36 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ments on principles of right, justice, equity and good 
faith." On the 12th March they addressed a for- 
mal communication to Mr. Seward, Secretary of 
War, fully revealing the nature and objects of their 
mission, and especially offering to treat with refer- 
ence to the withdrawal of the Federal forces from 
Forts Sumter and Pickens in Charleston harbor. 
The embassy was met, first, by promises to evacuate 
these strongholds within the limits of the Southern 
Confederacy, and then by a secret attempt to re-in- 
force them. When it became known to President 
Davis that the expedition had actually sailed, he 
issued to General Beauregard, commmanding in 
Charleston, an order to undertake the reduction of 
forts. He opened fire on April the 12th, and on the 
13th the surrender occurred. On the 15th, Presi- 
dent Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for sev- 
enty-five thousand men, and stating that they would 
be used for " maintaining the honor, the integrity 
and existence of the Union, and the perpetuity of 
the popular government." On May the 6th, Vir- 
ginia became a member of the Southern Confederacy. 
On the 20th of May the seat of the Confederate 
Government was removed from Montgomery to Rich- 
mond, and a few days thereafter Mr. Davis arrived 
in the latter city and established there an adminis- 
tration on which the observation of the world was 
to be focused through four eventful years. It was 



PRESIDENT DAVIS. 37 

evident now that war was at hand. The battle at 
Manassas in July was but the result of preparations 
that had been going on for two months. When it 
was known that the attack was about to be made by 
the Federal forces gathered at Washington, Presi- 
dent Davis took train and hastened to join the Con- 
federate army. He reached the scene of conflict 
just as the enemy were retiring, panic-stricken, from 
the field. In his " Rise and Fall of the Southern 
Confederacy," he gives a very graphic description of 
what he saw and heard along the road that led to 
the ground where the deadly struggle was going on. 
When, two days after, he returned to Richmond, a 
large crowd met him at the station. As he stepped 
from the cars he made the following impromptu 
speech : 

" Fellow-citizens of the Confederate States : — 

" I rejoice with you this evening in those better 
and happier feelings which we all experience, as 
compared with the anxieties of three days ago. 
Your little army, derided for its want of numbers, — 
derided for its want of arms, — derided for its lack of 
all the essential material of war, — has met the 
grand army of the enemy, routed it at every point, 
and it now flies in inglorious retreat before our vic- 
torious columns. We have taught them a lesson in 
their invasion of the sacred soil of Virginia ; we 



38 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

have taught them that the grand old mother of 
Washington still nurses a band of heroes ; and a yet 
bloodier and far more fatal lesson awaits them 
unless they speedily acknowledge that freedom to 
which you were born." President Davis continued 
to administer affairs under the Provisional Govern- 
ment until February, 1862, when that expired by 
limitation, and the Permanent Government was set 
up. On February 22d, Washington's birthday, and 
beside the monument erected to his memory by the 
State that claimed him as her own, Mr. Davis deliv- 
ered his inaugural address as the President of the 
Confederate States under their Permanent Govern- 
ment. The day was exceedingly uncomfortable and 
gloomy. The atmosphere was chill and the rain 
was poured down from the heavens, which seemed 
to have gone into mourning over recent reverses to 
the Confederate Army. The last sentence of the 
address was as follows : 

" With humble gratitude and adoration, acknowl- 
edging the Providence which has so visibly pro- 
tected the Confederacy during its brief but eventful 
career, to thee, God ! I trustingly commit myself, 
and prayerfully invoke thy blessing on my country 
and its cause." It would not be suitable here to 
follow President Davis through all the events that 
were crowded rapidly into the period during which 
he was the Chief Magistrate of the Southern Con- 



PRESIDENT DAVIS. 39 

federacy. But some reminiscences lingering in 
Richmond may be very properly given. 

HISTORIC ROOMS. 

During his residence here the President's office and 
the Cabinet rooms and other offices were in the gran- 
ite building now used as a post-office, custom-house 
and for other Governmental purposes. Mr. Davis' 
house was at the corner of Twelfth and Clay, almost 
opposite and about a dozen blocks north of his 
office. It was his custom to walk to the office in 
the mornmg. His usual route was through the 
Capitol Square. About ten o'clock each morning he 
could be seen coming down the graveled walks to 
the executive office. His private office in those days 
was the one now and almost ever since used as the 
United States Court^room. There it was, amid such 
familiar scenes, the President was arraigned before 
United States Circuit Judge Underwood on the 13th 
of May, 1867, to be tried for treason. He had been 
arrested in Georgia, and committed to a casement at 
Fortress Monroe, where he remained for weeks. 
He was finally brought here and came before the 
notorious Underwood, who bailed him, and that was 
the last ever heard of that famous trial. The Cab- 
inet room, the one in which Mr. Davis held his 
council with his official household, was the one just 
opposite the President's, and for years used by the 



40 ' LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

clerk of the United States District Court. It was 
there that all of the military movements were dis- 
cussed by the head of the Confederacy and his 
advisers. 

INTERESTING REMINISCENCES. 

" It was in the early part of the year 1865 that 
the writer, one of a secret joint committee of the 
Legislature of Virginia, called upon President Davis 
at his room in the custom-house in Kichmond. The 
spokesman of the committee, addressing the Presi- 
dent, informed him that the Legislature of Virginia 
had directed the committee to inquire whether any 
further legislation could be suggested in aid of the 
Confederate cause. His response can never be for- 
gotten by any who heard it. There was in it the 
eloquence of deep feeling and the energy of an undy- 
ing resolve. While thanking the State, through its 
committee, for its kindly offer, he added that he 
thought Virginia had done her full duty, that her 
fair bosom had been furrowed by the ploughshare of 
war, and that the bones of her gallant sons were 
bleaching on every battle-field, and that all he could 
ask was that she would not waver in her confidence in 
the government. There was a pathos and depth of 
emotion in his remarks that impressed every mem- 
ber of the committee with the conviction that they 
were the utterances of a heart full of heroic fire and 
that felt no fear, though the clouds were dark and 



PRESIDENT DAVIS. 41 

the auguries to the common mind seemed pregnant 
of ill." 

No one in Richmond, or for that matter in the 
South, outside of his own family, saw more of Pres- 
ident Davis in those days than Mr. Wm. H. Davies. 
That gentleman, when about nineteen years of age, 
entered the President's service as confidential mes- 
senger. He was with him from the time Mr. Davies 
came here from Montgomery, Ala., until the night 
of evacuation. Referring to the Cabinet meetings, 
Mr. Davies said : 

" General Robert E. Lee was the only person 
ever permitted to enter the Cabinet unannounced.. 
When he came in I merely opened the doors, and 
he walked into the council chamber. 

A LOVABLE MAN. 

" Yes, he was one of the most lovable men I ever 
knew. He was always dignified, calm and thor- 
oughly well-poised, but he treated everybody around 
him with courtesy. With me he was more like a 
father than an employer. Mr. Davis was a fine 
rider — the finest, I think, I ever knew. It was his 
custom to ride out three or four times a week, or as 
much oftener as the weather and his official duties 
permitted. A favorite route was up Clay Street in 
the direction of Camp Lee. 



42 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION. 

" He was nearly always alone, never having the 
slightest fear of his life. This, by the way, came 
near getting him into trouble one evening. I 
remember it just as well as if it only occurred yes- 
terday. The President rode out the Bloody Run 
road. When just below Rockett's some one fired a 
pistol at him from ambush. Luckily, the would-be 
assassin missed his mark. The man was subse- 
quently found concealed in the roof of one of the 
shanties in the neighborhood and arrested. He was 
never prosecuted, though. This incident never 
alarmed Mr. Davis, nor did he permit it to interfere 
with his evening equestrian exercise. He still con- 
tinued this unaccompanied. 

THE EVACUATION. 

'^ On the Sunday night of the evacuation of Rich- 
mond, I was at the President's mansion assisting in 
packing up to go South. The President had re- 
ceived several telegrams that day from General Lee 
and other commanders apprising him of the condi- 
tion of affairs, and, of course, we knew that the end 
had come. All around us in the Executive Man- 
sion was bustle and excitement incident to such an 
occasion. I remember well, just before the time for 
departure arrived, Mr. Davis sat on a divan in his 



PRESIDENT DAVIS. 43 

study, sad, but calm and dignified. He talked 
pleasantly with those around him. When his car- 
riage drove up to the door to carry him to the depot 
Mr. Davis lighted a cigar, took a seat in the convey- 
ance and was driven to the Danville depot, where 
he took the train for the South." 

SUPPLEMENTING AN INADEQUATE SALARY. 

In the early days of the Confederacy there were 
frequent receptions and levees at the Executive 
Mansion, but in the last year or so these were pretty 
well discontinued. Mr. Davis, as the President of 
the Confederacy, received a salary of $25,000, and 
this in Confederate money. Towards the close of 
the struggle the purchasing capacity of that amount 
was not sufficient to have maintained a small family 
in the humble walks of life. Despite these facts, all 
say that the President would never accept a cent 
from the government except his salary. Forage for 
his horses and other things could have been drawn 
from the Government, but his sterling and conscien- 
tious scruples of honor would never for a moment 
entertain the idea of stooping to any of these things. 
A gentleman connected with the President in those 
pinching times says : " I disposed of silverware and 
other household articles of value for Mr. Davis to 
supplement his salary. He refused, too, to accept 
from the city of Richmond the house in which he 



44 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

dwelt. This was offered in fee-simple, but grace- 
fully declined." 

SLOW TO FOEGET A WRONG. 

Mr. Davis was a man slow to forget a serious 
wrong. This was shown in his treatment of the 
Emperor Napoleon. Mr. Davis thought that the 
former acted treacherously towards him in the 
course he pursued about France recognizing the 
Southern Confederacy. When Mr. Davis visited 
Paris, some time after the close of the war. Napoleon 
sent a special messenger to him with a pressing invi- 
tation to call on him. " Tell your majesty," said 
Mr. Davis to the messenger, " with my compliments, 
that I am much obliged, but if he wants to see me 
he must call on me." 

HIS VIGOROUS PERSONALITY. 

Very few persons, even those most intimately 
associated with him, could grasp the true character 
of the man. A distinguished ex-Confederate, whose 
duties during the war brought him in official con- 
tact with Mr. Davis, says : 

" He was a hard man to understand. No one 
could fail to appreciate his elevated standard of 
manhood, his lofty integrity, his remarkable ability. 
Yet it was hard to realize how he could be so wedded 
to his own opinions as to turn absolutely and invari- 



HIS LAST VISIT TO RICHMOND. 45 

ably a deaf ear to all counsel which conflicted with 
them. He never forgot a friend and never forgave 
an enemy. Mr. Davis used as pure English as any 
man I have ever read after. His style of composi- 
tion was remarkably graceful and eloquent, and 
many of his addresses during the war were couched 
in such language as to thrill through and through 
the coldest of natures. Literally it can be affirmed 
he never said a foolish thing. While he might often 
be considered by some as arbitrary and despotic in 
his conduct of public affairs, no man ever at the 
head of a government was more scrupulously con- 
scientious in abiding by the strict letter of the Con- 
stitution and law." 

HIS LAST VISIT TO RICHMOND. 

The ex-President returned to Richmond but once 
after his trial. The occasion of that visit was to 
attend the Robert E. Lee memorial service held 
here in Dr. Moore's church. On that occasion he 
was received with wild enthusiasm. 

The January number of Belford's Magazine con- 
tains the autobiography of the late Jefferson Davis 
and an article by him on Andersonville prison, to 
which his recent death lends extraordinary interest. 

No one question connected with the Civil "War 
has occasioned such bitter debate, or so widespread 
a feeling in the North as the alleged inhuman 



46 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

treatment of Federal prisoners of war in the South. 
Discussing the subject with justice and candor, Mr. 
Davis shows how much of this ill feeling rests upon 
misapprehension and falsehood, and, what will be a 
sharp revelation to very many persons, that the suf- 
ferings and hardships of Confederate prisoners in 
Northern prisons not only equaled but even ex- 
ceeded those of Union prisoners at Andersonville 
and elsewhere. The writer supports his statements 
with a mass of proof which no upright mind can 
refuse to credit and which puts a new face upon the 
ancient feud. 

"Andersonville," he says, "was selected after 
careful investigation for the following reasons : It 
was in a high pine-wood region, in a productive 
farming country, had never been devastated by the 
enemy, was well watered and near to Americus, a 
central depot for collecting the tax in kind and pur- 
chasing provisions. The climate was mild," and 
there were no "recognizable sources of disease." 
Persistence on the part of the United States in re- 
fusing to exchange prisoners " caused so large an in- 
crease in the number of the captured sent to Ander- 
sonville as to exceed the accommodation provided 
and thus augment the discomfort and disease of 
confinement. ... It was not starvation, as has 
been alleged, but acclimation, unsuitable diet and 
despondency which were the potent agents of dis- 



ANDEESONVILLE PEISON. 47 

ease and death. Statements from gentlemen of 
high standing, who speak disinterestedly, are sub- 
mitted as conclusive on the question of • quantity ' 
of food at Andersonville prison." Quoting from a 
letter, Mr. Davis says : " ' I can with perfect truth 
declare as my conviction that General Winder, who 
had control of the prisoners, was an honest, upright 
and humane gentleman. He had the reputation of 
treating the prisoners confided to his general super- 
vision with great kindness and consideration. . . . 
Both the President and Secretary of War always 
manifested great anxiety that the prisoners should 
be kindly treated and amply provided with food to 
the extent of our means.'" Again, Mr. Lawson 
quotes : " ' The Federal prisoners were removed to 
Southwestern Georgia in the early part of 1864, to 
secure a more abundant supply of food.' " Quoting 
from Austin Flint, Jr.'s, " Physiology of Man," Mr. 
Davis says : " ' The effects of salt meats and farina- 
ceous food (at Andersonville) without vegetables 
were manifest in the great prevalence of scurvy. 
The scorbutic condition, thus induced, modified the 
course of every disease, poisoned every wound, and 
lay at the foundation of those obstinate and exhaust- 
ive diarrhoeas and dysenteries which swept off thou- 
sands of those unfortunate men," " — i.e., the Federal 
prisoners of Andersonville. " President Davis had 
permitted three of the Andersonville prisoners to go 



48 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

to Washington to try and change the determination 
of their Government and procure a resumption of ex- 
changes. The prisoners knew of the failure of their 
mission when I was at Andersonville, and the effect 
was to plunge the great majority of them into the 
deepest melancholy, home-sickness and despondency,. 
. . . The same Captain Wirz who was tried and 
hung as a murderer, warmly urged improvements 
for the benefit of the unhappy prisoners under his 
charge. ... I mention these facts to show that he 
(Captain Wirz) was not the monster he was after- 
wards represented to be, when his blood was called 
for by infuriate fanaticism. . . . The facts alluded 
to satisfied me that he was a humane man. 
The real cause of all the protracted sufferings of 
prisoners, North and South, is directly due to the 
inhuman refusal of the Federal Government to 
exchange prisoners of war. . . . The greatest 
difficulty was experienced in procuring medicines 
and anti-scorbutics. These were made contraband 
by order of the Federal Government. . . . For 
a period of some three months Captain Wirz (who 
had himself suffered from gangrene in an old wound) 
and a few faithful officers were engaged night and 
day in ministering to the sick and djdng. . . . 
In his trial certain Federal witnesses swore to his 
(Captain Wirz) killing certain prisoners in August, 
1864, when he was actually absent on sick leave 



EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS. 49 

in Augusta, Ga., at the time." Quoting from the 
words of a Federal prisoner, in relation to the food 
served the prisoners, of which, in quantity, there 
was no lack, " it was the ordinary diet of the Con- 
federate Army, and they had nothing else to give 
us. . . . The cooks were our own men. . . . 
In reference to the report that Captain Wirz beat 
the prisoners, it was certainly unjust, because his 
right shoulder had been broken." Wirz was assured 
that if he would implicate Jefferson Davis with 
the Andersonville atrocities his sentence would be 
commuted. " To which Wirz replied : ' I know 
nothing about Jefferson Davis. He had no con- 
nection with me as to what was done at Anderson- 
ville.' " 

Mr. Davis goes on to &how that the Confederate 
prisoners in Northern prison-pens were treated quite 
as badly from the same causes, i. e., lack of habitual 
food, over-crowding, the diseases of men crowded 
together, home-sickness, etc., as were Northern 
prisoners at the South. 

EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS. 

On Sunday, April 2, 1865, while President Davis 
was seated quietly in his pew in St. Paul's Church, 
he received official information that General Lee's 
lines before Petersburg had been broken, and that it 
was necessary for the Confederate Government to 




ei S 



95 S 



o 



EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS. 51 

leave them. But hearing, about nightfall, that a 
party of marauders were to attack the camp that 
night, and supposing them to be pillaging deserters 
from both armies and that the Confederates would 
listen to me, I awaited their coming, lay down in 
my traveling clothes and fell asleep. Late in the 
night my colored coachman aroused me with the 
intelligence that the camp was attacked, and I 
stepped out of the tent where my wife and children 
were sleeping, and saw at once that the assailants 
were troops deploying around the encampment. I 
so informed my wife, who urged me to escape. 
After some hesitation I consented, and a servant 
woman started with me carrying a bucket, as if 
going to the spring for water. One of the surround- 
ing troops ordered me to halt and demanded my 
surrender. I advanced toward the trooper, throw- 
ing off a shawl which my wife had put over my 
shoulders. The trooper aimed his carbine, when 
my wife, who witnessed the act, rushed forward and 
threw her arms around me, thus defeating my inten- 
tion, which was, if the trooper missed his aim, to 
try and unhorse him and escape with his horse. 
Then, with every species of petty pillage and offen- 
sive exhibition, I was taken from point to point 
until incarcerated in Fortress Monroe. There I was 
imprisoned for two years before being allowed the 
privilege of the writ of habeas corjous." 



52 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

"At length, when the writ was to be issued, the 
condition was imposed by the Federal Executive 
that there should be bondsmen influential in the 
* Republican ' party of the North, Mr. Greeley 
being specially named. Entirely as a matter of 
justice and legal right, not from motives of personal 
regard, Mr. Greeley, Mr. Gerrit Smith and other 
eminent Northern citizens went on my bond. 

" In May, 1867, after being released from Fortress 
Monroe, I went to Canada, where my older children 
were, with their grandmother ; my wife, as soon as 
permitted, having shared my imprisonment, and 
brought our infant daughter with her. From time 
to time I obeyed summonses to go before the Federal 
Court at Richmond, until, finally, the case was 
heard by Chief Justice Chase and District Judge 
Underwood, who were divided in opinion, which 
sent the case to the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and the proceedings were quashed, leaving 
me without the opportunity to vindicate myself 
before the highest Federal Court. 

" After about a year's residence in Canada I went 
to England with my family, under an arrangement 
that I was to have sixty days' notice whenever the 
United States Court required my presence. After 
being abroad in England and on the Continent about 
a year I received an offer of an appointment as 
president of a life insurance company. Thereupon 



EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS. 63 

I returned to this country and went to Memphis and 
took charge of the company. Subsequently I came 
to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, as a quiet place 
where I could prepare my work on ' The Rise and 
Fall of the Confederate Government.' A friend 
from her infancy, Mrs. Dorsey, shared her home 
with me, and subsequently sold to me her property 
of Beau voir, an estate of five or six hundred acres, 
about midway between Mobile and New Orleans. 
Before I had fully paid for this estate Mrs. Dorsey 
died, leaving me her sole legatee. From the spring 
of 1876 to the autumn of 1879 I devoted myself to 
the production of the historical work just men- 
tioned. It is an octavo book in two volumes of 
about seven hundred pages each. I have also from 
time to time contributed essays to the North Ameri- 
can RevieiD and Belford's Magazine, and have just 
completed the manuscript of ' A Short History of 
the Confederate States of America,' which is ex- 
pected to appear early in 1890. 

" Since settling at Beauvoir I have persistently 
refused to take any active part in politics, not 
merely because of my disfranchisement, but from a 
belief that such labors could not be made to conduce 
to the public good, owing to the sectional hostilities 
manifested against me since the war. For the same 
reason I have also refused to be a candidate for pub- 
lic office, although it is well known that I could at 



54 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

any time have been re-elected a Senator of the 
United States. 

*'I have been twice married, the second time 
being in 1844, to a daughter of Wm. B. Howell, 
of Natchez, a son of Governor Howell, of New 
Jersey. She has borne me six children — four sons 
and two daughters. My sons are all dead; my 
daughters survive. The elder is Mrs. Hayes, of 
Colorado Springs, Col., and the mother of four chil- 
dren. My youngest daughter lives with us at Beau- 
voir. Miss. Born in the last year of the war, she 
became familiarly known as 'the daughter of the 
Confederacy.' " 

A DAY AT BEAUVOIR. 

A day with the ex-President is thus narrated by 
Mr. Sidney Root, a well-known Georgian. It is 
taken from the Atlanta Constitution : 

" On the way to the Southern Forestry Congress, 
in February, 1887, I found I had a day's leisure, 
and it occurred to me to accept an often-repeated 
invitation to visit Mr. Davis at Beauvoir, Miss., a 
railroad station about half-way between Mobile and 
New Orleans. It chanced that I had been on the 
committee which escorted him to Montgomery in 
1861, and our relations became somewhat intimate 
during the war, continuing it without interruption 
until this time. In the afternoon the train left me 




ei o 

O s 

b> ° 

< 



A DAY AT BEAUVOIR. 55 

at the little station, which is also the local post- 
office, the ex-President being the chief patron. A 
young Englishman in the service of Mr. Davis 
politely guided me over the devious country road to 
the family residence, half a mile distant. 

THE BUILDINGS AT BEAUVOIR 

form quite a group, having been built at considera- 
ble cost for a luxurious Southern home. Situated 
on a high bluff of white sand, about a hundred 
yards from the Mexican gulf, blown over by the 
salt sea breeze, it must be a healthy place. The soil 
seems incapable of producing anything but the 
superb live oaks, magnolias and pines, which shade 
the grounds of about fifty acres. All the buildings 
are of wood — one-story and slate-covered — the prin- 
cipal one is quite capacious, containing probably ten 
rooms, with lofty ceilings and all handsomely fres- 
coed. A very wide hall runs through the centre, 
and a broad veranda surrounds the whole. On 
either side, some fifty yards distant, are cottages of 
similar design, in one of which is Mr. Davis' office 
and reference library, his daughter's studio (Miss 
Davis is a fine artist) and a sleeping-room. The 
other cottage is an ^overflow' guest chamber building; 
a cluster of out-houses huddle in the rear. All the 
houses are painted white and show pleasantly under 
the evergreen foliage. Soon after sending in my card 



56 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

THE VENERABLE EX-PRESIDENT 

greeted me with hearty cordiality, and it was grati- 
fying to notice that this remarkable man still 
retained the dignified bearing, high courtesy and 
gentle manner of the ' old South.' That this man, 
now about eighty, conspicuous in the Black Hawk, 
Seminole and Mexican Wars, Secretary of War under 
Pierce, United States Senator from Mississipi for two 
terms. President of the Confederate States during 
the greatest conflict of modern time, State prisoner 
in a damp casemate of Fortress Monroe for two 
years, could, during all the stress which must have 
pressed upon him, still retain his erect carriage, 
wonderful memory and accurate knowledge of cur- 
rent events, is beyond my comprehension. Drawing 
some restful chairs to the parlor windows, through 
which came the soft gulf breeze, I had the happiness 
of a free conversation with, I think, the greatest 
man I ever knew. Many tender memories of per- 
sonal interest were recalled and many historic points 
discussed. With the exception of John C. Calhoun, 
Mr. Davis is 

THE MOST INTERESTING TALKER 

I ever met. I suppose he is the only man living 
who knows and remembers accurately the inner his- 
tory of the Confederacy. In speaking of the Black 



A DAY AT BEAUVOIR. 57 

Hawk, Seminole and Mexican Wars he related 
many interesting incidents, and mentioned the singu- 
lar fact that all the commanders in the Mexican War 
were from the South, as Scott, of Virginia ; Taylor, 
of Louisiana ; Worth, of North Carolina ; Briggs, of 
Georgia ; Pillow, of Tennessee ; Quitman, of Missis- 
sippi, besides, Bragg, Davis, Butler and others who 
held subordinate positions. Quitman, however, was 
born in the North. 

" I asked him who he thought was the greatest 
Confederate commander. After some thought he 
said General Lee, explaining that Albert Sidney 
Johnston was undoubtedly the equal of Lee, but 
having fallen early in the war he had no opportu- 
nity to demonstrate his great capabilities. After 
these two he mentioned Stonewall Jackson, J. E. 
Johnston, Gordon, Longstreet, Stewart, Lees, the Hills 
and many others. I asked him whom he considered 
the greatest Union general. He answered unhesitat^ 
ingly — McClellan. Said he was an intense Union 
man, and he respected him as such, but that he fell 
under unjust suspicion at Washington — for political 
reasons — and confusion ensued. When Secretary of 
War, Mr. Davis had sent McClellan to survey the 
Bay of Samana, in St. Domingo, with the hope of 
securing a harbor and coaling station in the West 
Indies for the United States navy. His map and 
report are now on file in Washington. The work 



58 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

was SO well done that he detailed him to visit St. 
Petersburg to report upon the military establish- 
ments of Russia. In twelve months he submitted 
exhaustive reports, and also translated a technical 
work, which is now in the War office in Washington. 

HE SPOKE KINDLY 

and appreciatively of many Northern generals, say- 
ing General Grant was a good man and a great gen- 
eral, who came to the front with the resources of 
the world at his back when the Confederacy was 
exhausted ; he also spoke in the most kindly way of 
President Lincoln, who, if his life had been spared, 
would have been of great service to the South and 
the whole country. 

" Mr. Davis inquired if I was in Richmond during 
the Seven Days' Battle. 

" Yes, I was a member of the Southern Baptist 
Convention, and remembered hearing the guns, and 
while we expected the Federal Army any day, there 
was no bitterness manifested, but special prayers 
were offered for the enemy and for the protection of 
the homes and people of the South. 

" I asked Mr. Davis if he remembered our conver- 
sation about a plan for the 

GEADUAL EMANCIPATION OF THE NEGRO. 

"Yes, he recollected every detail. He cordially 
approved of it, and showed the difference between 



MKS. JEFFERSON DAVIS. 59 

his plan and mine (this was in the autumn of 1864) 
and requested me to ride down to Drury's Bluff and 
confer with General Lee. I did so, and found that 
General Lee heartily approved of the plans. Owing 
to the danger of riding fourteen miles back to Rich- 
mond in the dark, General Lee compelled me to 
sleep in his tent — a very embarrassing position for 
me, because he would make me sleep on his cot, 
while he slept in his blankets on the ground. The 
matter was submitted to Congress in a special mes- 
sage, and the scheme was defeated, chiefly through 
Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, on the ground 
that the withdrawal of so many able-bodied slaves 
(40,000 at first), who were to be freed upon joining 
the army, would probably leave the men in the field 
without provisions. It will be remembered that 
Captain Harry Jackson ofiered to raise a regiment of 
negroes in Georgia to fight for their freedom. I 
spoke of my embarrassment in accepting General 
Lee's hospitality. He said Lee was right, as it 
would have been hazardous to return to Richmond 
after dark, and mentioned two amusing instances of 
his being arrested while inspecting the lines near 
Richmond. 

MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

" Mrs. Davis is of Welsh extraction — a Howell, a 
granddaughter of Governor Howell, of New Jersey, 
who was a fast friend of Washington. She was 



60 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

born in Vicksburg about 1826, the daughter of a 
large planter in the famous Yazoo bottoms. Married 
Mr. Davis forty-three years ago; they settled the 
now celebrated Brierfield plantation — a large island 
in the Mississippi River at Davis Bend, below Vicks- 
burg. The place was so called because of the lux- 
uriant tangle of briers which the rich soil produced. 
There they built a beautiful home and planted the 
magnificent live oaks which are now the pride of 
the neighborhood. Mr. Davis had previously mar- 
ried a daughter of ex-President Zachary Taylor. 
During my visit we again reviewed our plans of '61 
for the gradual emancipation of the negro. I do 
not know what the future historian may say, for the 
history of the Confederacy is yet to be written, but 
I do know that Mr. Davis, General Lee and many 
other prominent people of the South favored it, and 
that a bill was introduced in the Confederate Con- 
gress to that effect. Mr. Davis kindly, in describing 

THE BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 

said that when they moved out to meet the enemy 
they were uncertain about his numbers or position. 
General Taylor had about 1200 men, and they soon 
ascertained that they were opposed by 8000 of the 
flower of the Mexican Army, commanded by Santa 
Anna in person. The situation was perilous. Colo- 
nel Davis obtained the consent of General Taylor to 



HIS BIRTHPLACE. 61 

lead his Mississippi Rifles through a ravine, thus 
flanking the enemy's position, which led to the con- 
fusion and rout which finally ensued. He said there 
was no ill-feeling between him and General Taylor 
about his first marriage. He married with the gen- 
eral's consent, although the latter could not be pres- 
ent. He mentioned the kindness of ex-President 
Pierce, who visited him during his confinement in 
the fort, and who generously offered him a home for 
life when released. He had a high regard for Mr. 
Pierce ; said he was a very able man, and that his 
was the only administration in the history of the 
country during which there was no change in the 
Cabinet. 

"This unstudied memorandum about friends whom 
I love is written to preserve recollections which 
even in time may become dim in my memory." 

EX-PEESIDENT DAVIS' BIRTH-PLACE. 

In November, 1886, ex-President Davis visited 
Fairview, Ky., — under what circumstances and for 
what object the following from the Kentucky New 
Era will show : 

"Hon. Jefferson Davis left Clarksville, Tenn., 
Saturday evening by special train for Elkton, where 
the party was met by hacks and taken to Mr. W. H. 
Jesup's. He spent the night with Mr. Jesup, and 
attended the dedication, the next day, of Bethel 



62 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Baptist Church. This building is situated upon 
the spot where Mr. Davis was born, and the ground 
was purchased by him last year, and presented to 
the church for the purpose. The structure is one of 
the handsomest in Southern Kentucky, and was 
erected at a cost of over $6000. It is finished in 
elegant style and seated with opera reclining chairs, 
and is provided with pastor's study, baptistery, 
dressing-rooms, and all the modern improvements. 

"A finely-polished slab of violet-hued Tennessee 
marble, set in the wall of the vestibule opposite the 
memorial window, has this inscription in Roman 
capitals : 



JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

OF MISSISSIPPI, WAS BORN JUNE 3, 1808, 

ON THE SITE OF THIS CHUPvCH. 

HE MADE A GIFT OF THIS LOT MARCH 10, 1886, 

TO BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH, 

AS A THANK-OFFERING TO THE LORD. 



" At the hour on Sunday morning appointed for 
the service the church was crowded, and the distin- 
guished Mr. Davis entered, leaning upon the arm of 
Mr. Jesup, accompanied by Dr. Strickland, of Nash- 
ville, Tenn., Captain Clark, and two or three ladies 
from Clarksville, Tenn. Dr. Strickland, Dr. Baker 
and the pastor, E. N. Dicken, occupied the pulpit, 



HIS BIRTHPLACE. 63 

and the former proceeded to preach the dedicatory 
sermon. It was a discourse eloquent, instructive 
and appropriate, and was listened to with the closest 
attention. At the conclusion of Dr. Strickland's 
discourse Mr. Davis arose and spoke as follows : 

" ' Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congregation : My 
heart is always filled with gratitude to you, who 
extend me so many kindnesses. I am thankful I 
can give you this lot upon which to worship the 
triune God. It has been asked why I, who am not 
a Baptist, give this lot to the Baptist Church. I am 
not a Baptist, but my father, who was a better man 
than I, was a Baptist. 

" ' Wherever I go, when I come here I feel " that 
this is my own, my native land," When I see this 
beautiful church it refills my heart with thanks. It 
shows the love you bear your Creator ; it shows your 
capacity for building to your God. The pioneers of 
this country, as I have learned from history, were 
men of plain, simple habits, full of energy and 
imbued with religious principles. They lived in a 
day before the dawn of sectarian disturbances and 
sectional strife. In their rude surroundings and 
teachings, it is no wonder that they learned that 
God was love. I did not come here to speak. I 
would not mar with speech of mine the effect of the 
beautiful sermon to which you have listened. I 
simply tender to you, through the trustees of Bethel, 



64 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

the site upon which this church stands. May the 
God of heaven bless this community forever, and 
may the Saviour of the world preserve this church 
to his worship for all time to come.' " 

One of the interesting incidents of his life in 
recent years was the appearance of Mr. Davis at 
Biloxi, Miss., January 26, 1885, at the reception 
there of the Liberty Bell, from Philadelphia, on its 
way to the New Orleans Exposition. When the 
bell neared Beauvoir, the residence of Mr. Davis, 
a general desire was expressed to have him join the 
reception party. In response to a speech of welcome 
at the depot, Mr. Davis spoke with all his earlier 
vigor. " The aged statesman grew impassioned, and 
thrilled his audience with his eloquence. He was 
cheered vociferously, and seemed deeply moved." 
It was then that his little granddaughter, five years 
old, kissed the famous " bell that rung out liberty to 
all the land," and patted it with her tiny hand as 
she lisped, " God bless the dear old bell." On the 
29th of April, 1886, Mr. Davis spoke at the laying 
of the corner-stone of a monument to Confederate 
soldiers at Montgomery, Ala., and was received with 
great enthusiasm. Since then he has but seldom 
left his home at Beauvoir. 

Ex-President Davis died in New Orleans on the 
6th day of December, 1889. 

" The handsome residence of Mr. J. U. Payne, at 



THE DEATH CHAMBER. 65 

the corner of First and Camp Streets, is at present 
an object of interest to every friend of Mr. Jefferson 
Davis, because it is in the pleasant guest-chamber 
of this elegant home that the beloved old Confeder- 
ate chieftain passed away at fifteen minutes before 
one o'clock this morning. This residence, built by 
Mr. Payne, is one of the most comfortable and 
artistic in all the city. It was of brown-stone 
stucco, two stories high, with broad verandas, and 
set in lovely grounds, where camellia bushes are 
spiked with bloom, and oranges hang in clusters on 
the trees. 

THE DEATH CHAMBER. 

" The house has a wide hall running through the 
centre, with drawing-rooms on one side, a library on 
the other, and on the rear corner of the house is a 
lovely and cheery apartment, into which the South- 
ern sun streams nearly all day. 

" It is a wonderfully pretty room, with a rich- 
toned Persian-hued carpet on the floor, shades and 
delicate lace curtains at the four windows — two 
fronting to the east and two to the south. Pictures 
are on the walls, and there are a lounge, easy 
Turkish chairs and pretty carved tables, and a huge 
carved-oak Victoria bedstead, on which the ex-Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy lies in the embrace of death. 



*;\ 



66 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

MRS. DAVIS' MINISTRATIONS. 

" His constant attendant has been Mrs. Davis, who 
has never left his bedside since his illness began. 
In a comfortable home wrapper of gray and black 
this gentle ministrant was always at the invalid's 
side, and if she left him for a moment he asked for 
her, and was fretted or uneasy until she returned. 
Friends constantly sent beautiful flowers, of which 
Mr. Davis was very fond, but these were not allowed 
to remain in the sick room for any length of time. 
At the outset jellies, fruits and all manner of inva- 
lids' delicacies were proffered, until Mrs. Davis was 
compelled to decline them. The sick man's food 
was only milk, ice, beef tea, and rarely a broiled 
chop. 

" Mr. Davis remained in bed all the time, and was 
never left alone, being guarded lovingly by his wife 
and the capable quadroon hired nurse, Lydia, and 
Mrs. Davis' own little brown-eyed handmaiden, 
Betty, who at all times had entree to the sick-room. 
But little talking was allowed, and newspapers, let- 
ters and telegrams were tabooed. 

CLINGING TO HOPE. 

" On "Wednesday afternoon a reporter had a few 
moments' conversation with Mrs. Davis. She was 
worn and weary with service at the sick-bed, but 
which she would not allow to any other, and her 



THE DEATH CHAMBER. 67 

step was lagging as she came into the dining-room. 
She was very hopeful, however, of her husband's 
ultimate recovery. 

" ' Mr. Davis has always been an exceedingly tem- 
perate man/ said Mrs. Davis ; ^ he has never abused 
his physical powers, and no one could have lived 
more moderately than he. Of course, all this is in 
his favor. I do not mean to say that there would 
be no danger if a door were left open or the fire in 
his room allowed to go out. He is as frail as a lily 
and requires the most attentive care. That he has. 
I believe he would not be alive to-day had his illness 
come upon him at Beauvoir, where he could not 
possibly have had the constant care of such physi- 
cians as Dr. Bickham and Dr. Chaille, and the intel- 
ligent love, tenderness and luxury that surround 
him in this home.' 

THE PATIENT DESPONDENT. 

" From the beginning of his fatal illness Mr. 
Davis had insisted that his case was nearly or quite 
hopeless, though the dread of pain or fear of death 
never appeared to take the slightest hold upon his 
spirits, which were brave, and even buoyant, from 
the beginning of his attack. 

" In vain did the doctors strive to impress upon 
him that his health was improving. He steadily in- 
sisted that there was no improvement, but, with 



68 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Christian resignation, he was content to accept what- 
ever Providence had in store for him. Only once 
did he waver in his belief that his case showed no 
improvement, and that was at an early hour yester- 
day morning, when he playfully remarked to Mr. 
Payne, ' I am afraid that I shall be compelled to 
agree with the doctors for once and admit that I am 
a little better.' 

" All day long the favorable symptoms continued, 
and in the afternoon, as late as four o'clock, Mrs. 
Davis sent such a cheering message to Mrs. Stamps 
and Mr. and Mrs. Farrar that they decided, for the 
first time since Mr. Davis has been taken ill, to 
attend the French opera. 

THE FATAL ATTACK. 

" At 6 o'clock last evening, without any assignable 
cause, Mr. Davis was seized with a congestive chill, 
which seemed to absolutely crush the vitality out of 
his already enfeebled body. So weak was Mr. Davis 
that the violence of the assault soon subsided for 
lack of vitality upon which to prey. From that 
moment to the moment of his death the history of 
his case was that of a gradual sinking. At 7 
o'clock Mrs. Davis administered some medicine, but 
the ex-President declined to receive the whole dose. 
She urged upon him the necessity of taking the 



THE DEATH CHAMBER: 59 

remainder, but, putting it aside with the gentlest of 
gestures, he whispered, ' Pray excuse me.' 

" These were his last words. Gradually he grew 
weaker and weaker, but never for an instant seemed 
to lose consciousness. Lying peacefully upon his 
bed, and without a trace of pain in his look, he 
remained for hours. Silently clasping and ten- 
derly caressing his wife's hand, with undaunted 
Christian spirit he awaited the end. 

"From the moment of the dread assault of the 
congestive chill those gathered around his bedside, 
who had been watching and noting with painful 
interest every change of symptom for the past 
month, knew well that the dread messenger was 
even at the door. About half-past ten o'clock Asso- 
ciate Justice Fenner went to the French Opera 
House to call to Mr. Davis' bedside Mr. and Mrs. 
Farrar and Mrs. Stamps. As soon as the message 
reached them they hurried to the bedside of the 
dying ex-President. 

BREATHED HIS LIFE AWAY. 

" By half-past eleven o'clock there were assembled 
in the death-chamber Mrs. Davis, Drs. Chaille and 
Bickham, Associate Justice and Mrs. Fenner, Miss 
Nannie Smith, grandniece of the dying ex-President, 
and Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Farrar. 

" Finding that Mr. Davis was breathing somewhat 



70 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

heavily as he lay upon his back, the doctors assisted 
him to turn upon his right side. With his cheek 
resting upon his right hand, and with his left hand 
drooping across his chest, he lay for some fifteen 
minutes breathing softly, but faintly. More and 
more feeble came his respirations till they passed 
into silence, and then the watchers knew that the 
silver cord had been loosed and the golden bowl 
broken. The father of the Confederacy had passed 
away, 

"'As calmly as to a night's repose, 
Or flowers at set of sun.' 

A CRUSHING BLOW. 

"Despite the fact that the end had come slowly 
and peacefully, and after she had been face to face 
for hours with the dread reality, the blow fell with 
crushing force upon the afflicted widow. As long as 
there had been work for either head or hands she 
had borne up bravely, and not until the sweet uses 
for her tender ministrations were lost did she seem 
to realize the terrible force of the blow that had 
fallen upon her. 

" Knowing of a predisposition to heart affection, 
the doctors were at once gravely alarmed for her. 
They promptly administered a composing draught, 
and at a late hour she was resting quietly. 



THE DEATH CHAMBER. 71 

CAUSE OF DEATH. 

" It is believed that the foundation of the ex-Pres- 
ident's last illness was malaria, complicated with 
acute bronchitis. Careful nursing and skilled med- 
ical attention had mastered the latter, but it is sup- 
posed that the congestive chill, which was the im- 
mediate cause of death, was attributable to a return 
of the malaria. 

"After death the face of the deceased, though 
looking slightly emaciated, showed no trace of suf- 
fering, more nearly resembling that of a peaceful 
sleeper than of the dead. 

THE EVENT ANNOUNCED. 

" When the family had partially recovered from 
the terrible shock, Mr. Farrar went to the Western 
Union Telegraph office and sent dispatches to Miss 
Winnie Davis, who is in Paris, with Mrs. Pulitzer ; 
to Mr. Davis' son-in-law, in Colorado Springs, and 
also notified Governor Lowry, of Mississippi, as he 
deemed it but right that the executive of that State 
should know of the death of one of its most distin- 
guished sons." 

" Notwithstanding the early hour at which Mr. 
Davis died, it was decided by Mr. Farrar, Judge 
Fenner and Mr. Payne to inform Mayor Shakspeare 
that President Davis had passed away. 



72 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

" A written communication of the facts was di- 
rected to him and delivered at 3.05 a.m. Mayor 
Shakspeare visibly showed his emotion at the con- 
tents of the letter. He hastily clothed himself and 
immediately walked to the residence. The chilly 
fog hung low in dense masses, and faintly defined 
by the electric lights, familiar shapes along the 
streets fell in distorted shadows. The house was 
shrouded in darkness and intense silence. From 
the trees surrounding the approaches to the dwell- 
ing great drops of condensed fog fell with a softly 
deadened sound upon the earth. 

" Mr. Farrar and Mr. Payne received the Mayor 
in the hallway, and the three rapidly entered the 
back parlor or dining-room. The Mayor's procla- 
mation was quickly sketched out that it might be 
published in the morning. The Thnes-Democrat had 
held its issue back that the Mayor's notification 
might be given publicity. At 4.10 the proclamation 
was handed a Times-Democrat reporter and was pub- 
lished in yesterday's issue. 

" While the proclamation was being written out, 
Mr. Payne paced the room with hands folded behind 
him, or restlessly sought an arm-chair to look stead- 
fastly ahead of him at the writers. 

" The house then sank into 

AN AWED SILENCE, 

save the occasional closing of some far-off door, and 



THE DEATH CHAMBER. 73 

the final closing of the great hall door behind the 
undertaker. 

"A heavy piece of black crape was adjusted to 
the bell knob as Mr. Johnson entered the house. 
The token was sufficient information, and no line 
was written to convey that death had paused during 
the midnight hours in one of the silent rooms. The 
drip, drip of the fog was the only audible sound 
down the long streets. It had come in darker than 
midnight and hung in gloomy clouds overhead, as if 
a deluge of rain was imminent. Some laborers with 
dinner pans and overalls, wrapped in red handker- 
chiefs, were the first to see the crape hanging near 
the door. Conversation, which had not been loud 
in tone, was arrested immediately, and they reached 
out their hands and felt, the fabric without speaking. 
They passed on, maintaining silence. 

" Four patrolmen returning from their night's 
duties saw the emblem and crossed the lower comer 
of Camp and First streets. They, too, were si- 
lenced. So dark was the street at this time that 
the lights of a private cab were barely distinguish- 
able as it stood at the adjoining house. At day- 
break the foot passengers passing near the residence 
elevated their hats and passed the grounds and 
house with heads uncovered. 

" The sun was at last of sufficient force to dissi- 
pate the fog, and while as yet the house was not 



74 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

astir many ladies began to call as early as 8.10. 
Callers were frequent from that time on. Many 
of these 

BROUGHT CUT FLOWERS 

and several offerings were in large and expensive 
designs. 

" Callers were invariably denied admittance unless 
closely connected or intimate friends of the bereaved 
family. Mrs. Davis denied audience, at the solicita- 
tions of the family, as often as practicable: Her 
bereavement was prostrating her, and her friends 
feared she would overtax her strength. 

" By 5.30 o'clock the funeral directors had com- 
pleted embalming the remains of the dead chieftain, 
and he was dressed in his suit of Confederate gray, 
the suit that he had on when he was removed from 
the steamboat ^ Leathers ' to the home of Associate 
Justice Fenner. The body was then laid out in the 
death-chamber, and Mrs. Davis came in and took 
her seat beside it. In conversation with members 
of the household she expressed the desire to be 
alone with the dead during the day. Her friends 
tried to impress upon her that she was overtaxing 
herself, but she insisted, and they gave way. 

" It was then announced that no one would be 
permitted to intrude upon Mrs. Davis, and with 
very few exceptions no one was permitted to enter 
the room. 



HIS BODY-SERVANT. 75 

" This rule was first violated at Mrs. Davis' 
request to admit an old negro who had years ago 
been 

MR. DAVIS' BODY-SERVANT. 

" As a result of his gracious dignity, Mr. Davis 
never came in contact with a menial but that at once 
they grew devotedly attached to him. More than once 
have family and friends quizzed him regarding the 
absorbing love of the porters, servants and slaves 
that accident threw in his way. Never was a man 
more loved by those who served him, and this was 
peculiarly noticeable among the negroes he owned 
before the war. One of the most affecting incidents 
connected with the death, was the arrival and grief 
of this old darky, a former slave of Mr. Davis* 
brother, the late Joe Davis. 

" For a number of years Miles Cooper, a decrepit 
colored man, has sent from his present home in 
Florida little tokens in the way of fruits raised by 
his own hands for the hospitable Beauvoir table. 
Through the local press Miles heard of Mr. Davis' 
extreme illness, and, putting every personal interest 
and comfort aside, hastened to see the master he 
loved. Unused to traveling, aged and uncertain in 
his movements, the unselfish servant again and 
again missed connection in the short trip, was de- 
layed, left behind and put to every possible annoy- 
ance and inconvenience. Finally he arrived, and, 



76 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

full of pleasca,iit anticipations, hurried up to look 
once more in those kindly eyes and feel the cordial 
grasp of that genial hand. Reaching the residence, 
all stilled as it was and surrounded by an atmos- 
phere of death, the servant learned of Mr. Davis' 
death the night previous. It was 

MORE THAN HE COULD BEAR, 

and breaking down with an outburst of deep grief, 
Miles sat crushed and hopeless, only asking the one 
favor to be admitted to the presence of his master. 
Every one, save the family, had been denied 
entrance, but Mr. Farrar, at Mrs. Davis' request, 
led the way, and soon the ex-slave stood face to face 
with the noble dead. It was pitiful to hear the sobs 
and wails of the old darky. He mourned with 
unaffected grief for the ' Mars Jeff' of his youth, 
and prayed earnestly for the welfare of those he left 
behind. 

" Betty, a little maid who has been in Mrs. Davis' 
employ, said to a reporter : * You are writing a good 
deal about Mr. Davis, but he deserves it all. He 
was good to me and the best friend I ever had. 
After my mother died and I went to live with Mr. 
and Mrs. Davis, at Beauvoir, he treated me like one 
of his own family. He would not allow any one to 
say anything to wound the feelings of a servant.' 

"At 4.15 P.M., Sister Mary Baptiste and Sister 



A TRIBUTE OF EESPECT 77 

Mary Patrenelia, of St. Alphonsus Convent, with a 
number of young female orphans, begged admittance 
that they might be able to offer their 

PRAYEES FOE THE DECEASED. 

Mrs. Davis retired from the room and the Sisters 
and children knelt by the bier upon which rested 
the body of the dead statesman. It was clad in 
plain gray uniform, with black cloth-covered buttons. 
At his head and resting their tips slightly on each 
shoulder were two palm leaves, such as marked the 
caskets of the Christian dead in ages past, to signify 
that the spirit had been victorious over the body. 

" In the angle of the leaf stems was a sheaf of 
wheat harvested at its fruition. Flanking this was a 
pillow of roses. Above, the lowered flame of 
a gas jet flamed faintly. The young faces, unscarred 
in the world's battles, shone out in strong contrast 
to that of him whose spirit had so recently gone 
down into the valley. From the not tightly closed 
upper lattice of the window the light of the blue 
evening sky 

TOUCHED THE FEATURES OF THE DEAD 

with an azure tint and traced the delicate profile 
lines of the face. Assembled in the room during the 
devotional exercises were members of the household 
of subordinate position. The appeals and responses 



78 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

rose and melted over the mute frame enwrapped in 
the cloth of his corpse. After the conclusion of the 
ceremonies the Sisters and orphans immediately 
withdrew. 

THE CASKET. 

"At 7.05 p. M., the closed hearse containing the 
casket drew up at the front gate. It was soon taken 
within the house, and those gentlemen who were 
within the rooms assembled on the front gallery. 
Attracted by the dark conveyance, with its white 
horse, the loiterers, the curious and not a few who 
designed visiting the house began to occupy the 
sidewalks. Early in the day the family had 
expressed the hope that the removal of Mr. Davis' 
remains to the City Hall should be unostentatious and 
with most marked quietude. Seeing the vehicle 
was collecting the crowd, the undertaker, after per- 
forming his duty to the body, had it driven away to 
return at a later time to carry the corpse to the City 
Hall. This caused the crowd to disperse, and the 
streets were comparatively deserted at 9.50 p. m." 

AREANGING FOR THE FUNERAL, 

" Many churches held memorial services in honor 
of Jefferson Davis, principally the Protestant 
Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian. 
Bishop Keener, of the Methodist Church, related 
anecdotes of the deceased, especially as a visitor to 



AERAXGING FOR THE FUNERAL. 79 

the annual seashore camp-meeting. Bishop Galle- 
her, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, who was 
in charge of the funeral, did not preach any ser- 
mon. Bishop Hugh Miller Thompson, of Missis- 
sippi, assisted him, and Rev. Ebenezer Thompson, 
of Biloxi, Miss, who was Mr. Davis' pastor, also 
take a prominent part. Dr. Markham, Presbyterian, 
Father Hubert, Catholic, and Drs. Bakewell and 
Martin, Protestant Episcopal, who were all Con- 
federate chaplains, assisted Bishop Galleher. Dr. 
Bakewell was sergeant of a company and Bishop 
Galleher himself carried a musket. It was the 
Bishop's intention to have the services take place on 
the broad portico of the City Hall. Lafayette 
Square stretches out in front and many people could 
then witness the rites. A surpliced choir sang 
the anthem, " Though I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death," by Sir Arthur Sullivan. At 
the tomb the same choir chanted " Rock of Ages." 
The body was taken to the cemetery, a distance 
of about three miles, on a caisson, and the vast pro- 
cession walked all the way. The parade was of 
immense proportions. Even the benevolent soci- 
eties turned out. The sombre drapery of mourn- 
ing spread over the city. The shipping dipped its 
flags, the British steamships especially putting their 
flasrs at half-mast. 

o 

The full programme of parade was decided upon 



80 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

by Gen. John M. Lynn, the grand marshal. The 
selection of pall-bearers was left to Mrs. Davis. 

Mr. J. U. Payne, a prominent cotton factor and 
life-long friend of Mr. Davis was one, and the 
Grand Army Confederate Veterans and the Gov- 
ernors of other States were represented beside the 
casket. The Army of Northern Virginia and Army 
of Tennessee Veterans marched side by side just 
behind the caisson bearing the remains of their 
lamented chief. 

The remains of Mr. Davis lay in state in the 
council chamber of the City Hall. At midnight 
Friday they were carried from the Payne mansion 
to the City Hall. The cortege consisted of the 
hearse and two carriages. One of the latter was 
filled with flowers, and the other was occupied by 
six personal friends of the deceased. The casket 
was placed upon a catafalque draped in plain black. 
The coffin was covered with black plush, edged with 
broad black braid. The handles along the sides con- 
sisted of a single square bar of silver, and across each 
end was a short bar of gold. The top of the casket 
was covered with one sheet of heavy French plate 
glass, which extended its entire length, and rested 
on the thick copper lining. 

All day long there was a ceaseless stream of 
people viewing the remains of Jefferson Davis. 
Floral offerings have poured in, and the coffin 



ARRANGING FOR THE FUNERAL. 81 

looked as if placed at the base of a bank of flowers. 
The Army of Tennessee lead with a design ten 
feet high, one of the handsomest floral ofierings 
ever made here. 

When the doors opened at 10 o'clock fully three 
thousand people were waiting to enter. The crowd 
was so great that the people were allowed to pass 
the bier in double instead of single column, and over 
three thousand eight hundred people passed every 
hour. The total was fully forty thousand in one 
day. The body will remain exposed until the last 
minute. 

A silver plate on the casket bears the inscrip- 
tion, "Jefferson Davis at Rest." 

" Badges of the Confederate associations, the flag 
of the Washington Artillery carried through the 
war, and a bunch of wheat and pair of crossed 
Spanish daggers, as the plant is termed, fastened 
together with purple ribbon, were the only other 
ornaments. The desks of the mayor and clerks 
were covered over and turned into a platform, 
which was the receptacle for floral ofierings. The 
room was lit up by clusters of electric lights, their 
brilliancy being dimmed by the sable drapery. Sol- 
diers in uniform stood guard, stacks of arms and 
cannon filled the corners of the chamber, and all 
around the walls were rows of plants and shrubbery, 
forming a beautiful contrast. 



82 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

During the early morning people poured in to 
obtain a last look at the dead — fifteen hundred 
people passing each hour. The visitors were filed 
through the room in regular column. All classes 
were represented in the procession by the bier. The 
number of colored people was marked. 

FUNERAL. 

By universal request Mr. Jefferson Davis was 
given a funeral in full accord with his superior rank 
as a military officer, in addition to which, numerous 
civic and other organizations combined to render 
the cortege in all respects most imposing, not 
only with reference to numbers, but in the pomp 
and circumstance of its elaborate ceremonial. Be- 
sides the veterans of the lost cause, who have once 
again been called upon to close up their decimated 
ranks, were many gallant soldiers whose unflinching 
valor, displayed on numerous hotly-contested fields, 
resulted not unfrequently in both glory and victory 
to * the stars and stripes.' 

SCENE AT THE CITY HALL. 

At 11.30 o'clock the funeral ceremonies were to 
be commenced, but long previous to that time the 
great square immediately fronting the City Hall had 
become an unwieldy mass of eager, sympathetic 
humanity. According to programme the square 



THE PALL-BEAEERS. 83 

proper was to be reserved exclusively for the mili- 
tary. In the enforcement of this injunction, however, 
the large, but by no means adequate, police force on 
duty, experienced innumerable obstacles, and it was 
with the greatest difficulty that the swaying multi- 
tude was kept beyond the prescribed environments. 
The streets, banquettes and every available place 
from which either an unobstructed or partial view 
could be had of the portico of the municipal build- 
ing, were crowded almost to suffocation. During all 
this time the air was laden with funeral dirges, the 
solemn requiem of the bells was heard on every 
hand, and louder and deeper were the sounds of 
minute guns that at intervals thundered forth their 
deep-mouthed tribute to the illustrious dead. 

THE PALL-BEARERS. 

The following gentlemen acted as pall-bearers : 
Honorary Pall-hearers — Governor Francis T. 

Nicholls, of Louisiana ; Governor Robert Lowry, of 

Mississippi ; Governor S. B. Buckner, of Kentucky ; 

Governor John B. Gordon, of Georgia; Governor J. 

S. Richardson, of South Carolina; Governor D. G. 

Fowle, of North Carolina ; Governor F. P. Fleming, 

of Florida; Governor James P. Eagle, of Arkansas. 
These gentlemen represent the Southern States 

pall-bearers — General George W. Jones, of Iowa; 

Hon. Charles E. Fenner, of Louisiana; Mr. Sawyer 



84 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Hayward, of Mississippi; Hon. Thomas H. Watts, 
of Alabama, a member of President Davis' cabinet. 

APPEARANCE OF THE REMAINS. 

The body, notwithstanding the very warm and 
exceptionally oppressive weather of the past week, 
was remarkably well-preserved. The countenance 
presented an expression of 'rapturous repose,' and 
in no wise had ' decay's defacing fingers ' yet blotted 
out, much less tarnished in the remotest degree, the 
noble lines of a face strikingly attractive when 
lighted by the fire of genius, as it was wont to be. 
Indeed the Confederacy's beloved chieftain, as he 
reposed in his coflin this morning, presented just 
such a picture as those who knew and loved him in 
life would like best to cherish in their memory. 

At 12.10 the casket was conveyed from the 
memorial room to an improvised catafalque in the 
centre of the front portico, where massive pillars 
were entwined with a profusion of crape. Over the 
casket was thrown the soft folds of a silken flag of 
the lost cause, as also the glittering sabre with 
which the dead soldier had carved fame and honor 
for himself, and glory and victory for his country, 
on the crimson fields of Chapultepec and Monterey. 
Immediately surrounding the coffin were the clergy 
and the armed sentries, they being the only persons 
admitted to a place on the portico during the service. 



BISHOP GALLEHER'S ADDRESS. 85 

The relatives of the deceased were assigned to seats 
in the mayor's parlor, from the windows of which 
they were enabled to witness the ceremonies. 

THE SERVICES. 

The obsequies, which were according to the ritual 
of the Episcopal Church, were conducted by Bishop 
Galleher, assisted by five ofiiciating clergymen of 
various denominations, as follows : Father Hubert, 
Rev. Mr. Thompson, Mr. Davis' rector at Biloxi, 
Miss. ; Rev. Dr. Markham, Rev. Mr. Bakewell and 
Rev. Mr. Martin. 

There were altogether fully twenty surpliced min- 
isters, besides the attendance of numerous clergy of 
different denominations from the various Southern 
States. A surpliced choir of thirty-six voices, 
accompanied by the organ, sang the anthem, 
' Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.' 

BISHOP GALLEHER'S ADDRESS. 

" Bishop Galleher made an address. He said : 
' When we utter our prayers to-day for those who 
are distressed in mind, when we lift our petitions to 
the Most Merciful and ask a benediction on the des- 
olate, we remember that one household above others 
is bitterly bereaved and that hearts closely knitted 
to our own are deeply distressed ; for the master of 
Beauvoir lies dead under the drooping flag of the 
saddened city; the light of his dwelling has gone 



86 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

out and left it lonely for all days to come. Surely 
we grieve with those who weep the tender tears of 
homely pain and trouble, and there is not a sign of 
the gulf breeze that swings the swinging moss on 
the cypress trees sheltering their home but finds an 
answer in our own burdened breathing. We recall 
with sweet sympathy the wifely woe that can be 
measured only by the sacred depths of wifely devo- 
tion, and our hearts go traveling across the heaving 
Atlantic seas to meet and to comfort, if we might, 
the child who, coming home, shall for once not be 
able to bring all the sweet splendors of the sunshine 
with her. Let us bend with the stricken household 
and pay the tribute of our tears; and then, ac- 
knowledging the stress and surge of a people's sor- 
row, say that the stately tree of our Southern wood, 
planted in power, nourished in kindly dews, branch- 
ing in brave luxuriance and scarred by many storms, 
lies uprooted. The end of a long and lofty life has 
come, and a moving volume of human history has 
been closed and clasped. The strange and sudden 
dignity of death has been added to the fine and res- 
olute dignity of living. A man who in his person 
and history symbolized the solemn convictions and 
tragic fortunes of millions of men cannot pass into 
the gloom that gathers around a grave without sign 
or token from the surcharged bosoms of those he 
leaves behind, and when Jefierson Davis, reaching 



BISHOP GALLEHER'S ADDRESS. 87 

* the very seamark of his utmost sail/ goes to his 
God, not even the most ignoble can chide the majes- 
tic mourning, the sorrowing honors of a last 'salute.' 
" ' I am not here to stir by a breath the embers of 
a settled strife ; to speak one word unworthy of him 
and of the hour ; what is writ is writ in the world's 
memory and in the books of God. But I am here 
to say for our hel23 and inspiration that this man, as 
a Christian and a churchman, was a lover of all 
high and righteous things ; as a citizen, was fash- 
ioned in the old, faithful type ; as a soldier, was 
marked and fitted for more than fame — the Lord 
God having set on him the seal of the liberty of men. 
Gracious and gentle, even to the lowliest, nay, espe- 
cially to them ; tender as he was brave, he deserved 
to win all the love that followed him. Fearless and 
unselfish, he could not well escape the lifelong con- 
flict to which he was committed. Greatly and 
strangely misconceived, he bore injustice with the 
calmness befitting his place. He suffered many and 
grievous wrongs, sufiered most for the sake of others, 
and those others will remember him and his un- 
flinching fidelity with deepening gratitude while the 
Potomac seeks the Chesapeake or the Mississippi 
sweeps by Brierfield on its way to the Mexican sea. 
When on the December midnight the worn warrior 
joined the ranks of the patient and prevailing ones 
who— 



38 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

' " Loved their land with love far brought, 

If one of the mighty dead gave the challenge : 
Art thou of us? 

He answered : ' I am here.' " ' 

EEVEEENTIAL SILENCE. 

Following Bishop Galleher, the Rev. Dr. Mark- 
ham read the lesson, while the Rev. Mr. Martin re- 
peated a Psalm, the Rev. Mr. Bakewell the versicles, 
and the Rev. Thompson the Creed, and thus ended 
the services at the City Hall, which, although sim- 
ple and brief, were wonderfully impressive. 

During this period the immense throng, repre- 
senting every conceivable variety of religious and 
social predilection, profession and nationality, stood 
in reverential silence and with heads uncovered. A 
deep silence pervaded the vast assembly and the 
emotions experienced by all were deep and unutter- 
able. 

THE PROCESSION. 

At the conclusion of the religious services the 
casket was borne by a detachment of soldiers to the 
handsomely decorated caisson which had been espe- 
cially prepared for its reception, and on which it was 
to be conveyed to the cemetery. From the caisson 
arose a catafalque consisting of a unique and beau- 
tifully designed canopy, measuring from base to 
dome eight feet in length and four in width, and 
supported by six bronze cannon, craped in between 



THE PROCESSION, 89 

with muskets. The dome of the canopy was orna- 
mented in bronze, with furled United States jflags 
craped upon either side. The sides of the catafalque 
were superbly draped in black cloth with bullion 
fringes and gimp. The casket rested on a slight ele- 
vation and the caisson was drawn by six black horses, 
two abreast, caparisoned in artillery harness and 
plumes, and each animal led by a soldier in uni- 
form. 

With marvelous military precision the various 
seemingly unwieldy battalions wheeled into line, 
preceded by a detachment of the city police, and 
followed in turn by the clergy, pall-bearers, and so 
on in their respective order until the mammoth pro- 
cession was formed. 

The procession, after leaving the City Hall, pro- 
ceeded up St. Charles Street to Calliope, and from 
Calliope moved into Camp, thence to Chartres, to 
St. Louis, to Royal, and thence on Canal in a direct 
route to the cemetery. 

It was an hour and ten minutes passing a given 
point. 

TOLLING BELLS. 

As the grand funeral cortege traversed the 
streets, from the turrets of every church a bell was 
tolled. The clank of sabres and the tramp of iron- 
shod feet echoed along the interminable line, while 
soul-subduing dirges blended with the solemn boom- 



90 LIFE OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

ing of the minute-guns. Parts of the city not di- 
rectly located in the line of march or in any way 
remote from the scene of the pageant were literally 
depopulated, their inhabitants having gathered in 
countless numbers on the banquettes and in other 
available places from which an easy view of the 
marching columns could be had. 

AT THE CEMETERY. 

The entry of the pageant into the beautiful 
cemetery away out on the quiet Metairie Ridge, far 
from the thunder and clatter and turmoil of the 
busy, rushing, work-a-day city life, was made with 
all the pomp and circumstance of a military and 
civic procession. 

Even before noon, when the religious ceremonies 
were just beginning, people gathered within the 
hallowed precincts of the romantic burying ground. 
They came in street cars, in trains, in carriages,, in 
vehicles of every known description and on foot, 
and took up a position on the tombs and broad 
walks and on the scrupulously well-kept lawn. 

Metairie is the prettiest cemetery in the South. 
It ranks in beauty with the handsomest burial- 
grounds of the world. It is situated about two 
miles and a half from the business part of the city, 
and is rich in its architecture, its verdure and its 
possessions. Years ago it was the famous race- 



AT THE CEMETERY. 91 

course of the South. Some years back it was trans- 
formed into a city of the dead. Since then nature 
and man have constantly aided in its adornment. 
Within it lie the remains of thousands of Confeder- 
ate veterans, and here are most of the tombs of the 
military and veteran associations of New Orleans. 

It is in this cemetery, in a subterranean vault, 
that the Southern chieftain has been temporarily 
laid to rest. The Army of Northern Virginia tomb 
is beneath the marble monument of the lamented 
Confederate leader, Stonewall Jackson. It is situ- 
ated nearly half a mile from the stone entrance, 
nearly in the centre of the cemetery, and surrounded 
by imposing tombs of wealthy people of New Orleans. 
The mound is of gradual ascent, prettily laid out in 
parterres and richly grown with rare flowers. From 
a sectional stone base a slender shaft, broken with 
laurel wreaths, rises to commanding heights. At its 
apex a heavy slab of marble bears the statue of 
Jackson. The figure represents the famous general 
in an attitude of repose, his sword leaning on a 
broken stone wall, and his left hand resting grace- 
fully on his side. He wears the regular Confederate 
officers' uniform, with his cloak thrown over his arm 
and his field-glasses held carelessly in his left hand. 
The familiar kepi is pulled down, as the general was 
wont to wear it, closely over his forehead. The 
face looks toward the southeast, and the features are 



92 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

almost perfect in their outline. Beneath the base is 
an underground chamber with vaults running all 
around it. It was in one of these that the remains 
of Mr. Davis were placed. 

The monument was decorated with extreme 
simplicity. The mound was covered entirely with 
green moss, and around the shaft was wound a chain 
of laurel and oak leaves. The decorations were the 
work of Mr. J. H. Menard. When the procession 
left the City Hall big furniture wagons drove up, 
and the mortuary chamber was emptied of its hun- 
dreds of floral offerings that came from every city 
and State in the South, and they were taken out to 
the cemetery. Here an artistic hand came into 
play, and the flowers were arranged with studied 
unostentation and most admirable effect, the mound 
being almost entirely hidden from view by the 
wealth of culture flowers. 

THE FINAL CEREMONIES. 

When the progress of the procession finally 
brought the militia to the monument, the police 
and soldiers were drawn up all around the circle, 
and as the funeral car, with its long line of carriages 
in the wake, drew up, the line of soldiers facing the 
monument were given right-about orders, in order to 
salute the bier. It was then four o'clock. The 
choristers had preceded the funeral, and took up 



THE FINAL CEREMONIES. 93 

position in a group to the left of the tomb. Then 
the Episcopal clergymen and the assisting clergy of 
other denominations, formed in a line on either side 
of the walk. The pall-bearers and distinguished 
guests did the same thing. Bishops Galleher and 
Hugh Miller Thompson walked slowly up to the 
base and took up their positions beside the bier. 
General Gordon came up shortly and stood quietly 
and modestly, with bowed head, close by. 

The caisson stopped at the foot of the walk, and 
Battery B's detail of honor bore the casket up the 
ascent to the foot of the monument, with Captain 
Beanham at its head. As the coffin was carried up 
the mound, the military orders were ^ Rest on arms,' 
and every soldier in the circle executed the order. 
The veteran associations marched into the cemetery 
together. When they reached the monument they 
parted, one going to the left, the other to the right. 
When they met they charged up the mound and 
formed an inner circle, the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia in front and the Army of Tennessee in the 
rear. Then the ladies and gentlemen of the family 
trod slowly up the mound. Mrs. Davis, heavily 
draped, leaned on the arm of the life-long friend of 
her husband, Mr. J. U. Payne, as she came up 
beside the bier. Mrs. Hayes came up on the arm of 
General Joseph R. Davis, a nephew of the dead 
President. Behind these came the faithful negro 



94 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

body-servant of Mr. Davis, Robert Brown. Mrs. 
Stamps was escorted by Mr. Farrar. Then followed 
other members of the family. Associate-Justice 
Fenner and his family came next, and immediate 
friends of Mr. and Mrs. Davis gathered around just 
as Bishop Thompson opened the ceremonies by 
reading the first portion of the Episcopal burial 
service. Then T. H. Sappington, of Company B, 
19th Infantry, stationed at Mt. Vernon barrack, 
Ala., sounded the bugle call of " Taps." Bishop Gal- 
leher read the second portion of the ritual consign- 
ing the body to the grave. Here are his extempo- 
raneous words : " In the name of God, Amen. We 
here consign the body of Jefferson Davis, a servant 
of his State and country, and a soldier in their 
armies ; some time member of Congress and Senator 
from Mississippi, and Secretary of War of the United 
States ; the first and only President of the Confede- 
rate States of America ; born in Kentucky on the 
3d of June, 1808, died in Louisiana on the 6th of 
December, 1889, and buried here by the reverent 
hands of his people." 

An anthem by W. H. Walter, part of the burial 
service, Was sung by the choristers to a cornet 
accompaniment. Bishop Thompson recited the Lord's 
Prayer, in which the choir, the clergy and the gene- 
ral public joined, and then the hymn " Bock of Ages " 
was rendered, and the religious services were over. 



IN THE TOMB. 95 

IN THE TOMB. 

Bishop Galleher waved his hand as the signal 
of the closing. Captain Beanham gave the military 
command, the casket was raised from its bier, and 
the soldiers bearing it on their shoulders marched 
around the circular mound to the open doorway at 
the back of the monument leading to the stairway 
that reaches the subterranean chamber of the dead. 
The family took up its line in the order of its ascent 
of the mound, friends following. The Ladies' Memo- 
rial Association fell in, and Governor Nicholls and the 
other Governors joined in with the other pall-bearers. 
When the members of the family had descended, the 
casket was placed in the middle vault of the first 
perpendicular row, immediately on the right as you 
go down. The Confederate flag in which the coffin 
had been wrapped was removed, the slab was 
screwed tight, and the dead soldier had found his 
temporary resting place in the Army of Northern 
Virginia tomb. 

As the family descended an artillery detachment 
from the State Guard, Captain Beanham's Battery, 
fired three rounds, and the military funeral was 
over. 

There were placed before the vault three floral 
offerings — one a design of a chair, from the Lee 
Memorial Association ; another, " Gates Ajar,'' from 



96 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Mr. P. F. Alba, of Mobile, and the third, a cross of 
flowers, from the Girls' High School. 

As Mr. Payne and Mrs. Davis, both weeping, 
and the other relatives and close friends came up 
from the chamber and passed down to the carriages 
the troops presented arms. Then the Governors, 
the pall-bearers, guests from other States, the Ladies' 
Memorial Association, and finally the public, 
crowded down into the still, cold, whitewashed room 
below, and gazed a moment on the narrow chamber 
wherein all that was mortal of the beloved Southern 
chieftain was lying in peace and quiet, removed for- 
ever from its sphere in life. A police guard of honor 
will be on duty at the tomb. 

Ex-President Davis' funeral occurred in New Or- 
leans on "Wednesday, December 11, 1889. The 
occasion is thus editorially described by the Times- 
Democrat of that city : 

Magnificent in its immensity and sublime in its 
sadness was the mournful cortege that yesterday 
bore to the tomb all that was mortal of Jefferson 
Davis. 

As the long line of sorrow-stricken faces slowly 
moved through the streets, the minds of the old- 
time soldiers seemed to wander back to the days 
when the Cause that enwrapped the Southern heart 
was not lost, and victory held her hands outstretched 
to the valiant hosts of the Confederacy. 



IN THE TOiMB. 97 

It was a grand, an imposing, a historic funeral 
pageant. No man now living will look upon its like 
again. It is the snapping of the last great human 
link in the chain that binds the memory of the 
South to the volcanic past. Jefferson Davis rests 
to-day in the grave to which Providence in its 
wisdom consigned him, rich in honors, ripe in the 
love of his people, enshrined in the affection of all 
who treasure that liberty which comes from God on 
high. 

Many millions of people buried yesterday their 
best beloved. And yet in the eyes of the law he 
was not one of them. A man without a country, 
living under a government that knew him not, soli- 
tary and alone in his unique grandeur, the hero of 
the Lost Cause, Kossuth-like, refused to bend the 
pregnant hinges of the knee that civic glory and 
power and greatness might wait upon him. Jeffer- 
son Davis lived and moved and had his being, not 
upon the stage of men's affairs, but within the 
recesses of the human heart — the great common 
heart of the South. There, in the warm embrace of 
his own people, he passed the closing days of his 
well-spent life, and there he died. No death could 
so well befit so great a man ! 

Great in its numbers, the mournful procession 
that yesterday bore Jefferson Davis to the grave was 
greater still in the loftiness of its character, its ripe 



98 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

wisdom and its civic fame and virtue. Men illus- 
trious in every walk of life were there. Prelates 
eminent and eloquent; statesmen with popular 
honors heaped full measure upon them; learned 
jurists, rich in knowledge; representatives of nations 
great and powerful abroad ; the veterans who wore 
the gray ; the men who wore the blue ; the mystic 
brotherhoods ; civil, religious and benevolent organ- 
izations; our colleges and schools; the fire boys — 
all moved with solemn tread to the beautiful city of 
the dead where rests this morning the body of the 
hero of the Lost Cause. 

It was a spectacle grandly sad, mournfully elo- 
quent — the burial of Jefferson Davis. In the cold 
embrace of earth lies now the South's greatest, 
noblest, best." 

The solemn and imposing pageant won uni- 
versal commendation for the splendid simplicity 
of its ensemble, for the perfect arrangement of 
all its details, and for its grand and majestic pro- 
portions. 

For the last-mentioned feature of its excellence 
New Orleans claims no credit. It was a mighty 
assembling of the Southern people. Half a score of 
great States contributed their splendid soldiery and 
their civilian citizens, who gathered as if they were 
mere members of a vast family around the grave of 
their beloved dead. But it is in the creation and 



CONCLUSION. 99 

control of a grand street pageant that New Orleans 
is pre-eminent, and to the large experience, the ad- 
mirable taste, the unerring art instinct and the 
lavish liberality of the people of our good city, are 
wholly due the splendor, the beauty and the perfec- 
tion of arrangement that have made the funeral of 
Jefferson Davis one of the most notable events of 
the age. It was most fortunate for the entire South 
that Providence ordained that the last days of the 
life of that illustrious man were spent in the great 
city of his devoted people. 

A ^QUESTION IN CONCLUSION. 

Shall Jefferson Davis dead be as heartily hated 
and as mercilessly abused as was Jefferson Davis 
alive ? " He had his faults." So had Lincoln and 
Grant. So had the immortal "Washington himself 
Much of the reproach cast upon Mr. Davis has 
grown out of a failure to give due recognition to the 
following facts : 

1. He was not responsible for the beginning or 
the continuation of the war. It is true he advocated 
armed resistance if the General Government under- 
took to interfere with the States that passed ordi- 
nances of secession. But so did hundreds of public 
men throughout the South, whose views were entirely 
independent of what he had ever declared or taught. 
And if we leave the ranks of public men and come 



100 LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

to men in private station, we find that they were of 
the same mind. Indeed, whether the truth be 
looked upon as creditable or dishonoring to the 
South, let it be told — the movement of the Southern 
people in the years from 1860 to 1865 as much de- 
serves to be called a great popular uprising as any 
movement that ever occurred among any people. 
Say, if you choose, they were deceived, but say they 
were self-deceived. Jefierson Davis was able, was 
courageous, was determined, was fruitful in expe- 
dients of statecraft and of war, and yet Fort Sumter, 
and Manassas, and Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, 
and Cold Harbor would have occurred if he had 
never been born. 

2. Was Jefferson Davis a traitor? The Federal 
Government had him in its power; he was arraigned 
on this charge before one of its courts ; the Govern- 
ment had every opportunity of gathering the law 
and facts against him, and yet it declined even to 
undertake to prove the accusation made. Ought not 
this fact of history to make us a little modest in try- 
ing to fasten on his name the stigma of treason ? 

3. The armies directed by Jefferson Davis, what- 
ever else may be said of them, were not armies of 
invasion or conquest, but stood only for defence, and 
represented a people that simply asked to be let 
alone. 

4. Jefferson Davis was consistent and sincere ; his 



CONCLUSION. 101 

course as naturally followed from the theories long 
held and publicly advocated by him as the course of 
Jefferson, Henry and Adams flowed from their views 
concerning the relations of the colony to the mother- 
country. Had Jefferson Davis adhered to the Union 
after Mississippi had passed her secession act, histo- 
rians, with the records before them, would have 
found no little difficulty in vindicating his reputa- 
tion from crookedness and time-serving. 

5. " But slavery was such a horrible crime." Say 
so, if you choose ; but, as you say so, remember that 
for the existence of this horrible crime on Anglo- 
American shores the South was no more responsible 
than the North. Southerners bought the negroes 
and worked them on their plantations, but North- 
erners transported them from African jungles and 
sold them to all that were willing to buy. Even 
the large-hearted Peter Faneuil, who built the famous 
hall called by his name, fitted out ships for the 
slave-trade; and it is not impossible that some of 
the money that first went to construct that " cradle " 
in which Bostonians were to rock " Liberty " in its 
infant days, came from the traffic. The only real 
difference seems to be, that the North, under self- 
interest as a teacher, a little sooner learned than the 
South that slavery was a great moral wrong. 

6. " Slavery was so degrading to the negroes." 
Say that if you feel it is true ; but let your empha- 



102 LIFE OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

sis be a little diminished when it is found that, 
though the colored people do not occupy a very high 
social, intellectual or religious plane, yet in the 
Southern States they have attained a higher devel- 
opment in intelligence and religion than a like num- 
ber has reached in any other quarter of the globe. 

7. " The Union never could have been formed if 
it had been supposed that any State might withdraw 
from it at pleasure." On the other hand, can it be 
supposed that any State — Virginia, for example — 
would have adopted the Federal Constitution and 
gone into the Union if she had imagined that in so 
doing she would be giving to her sister States the 
right to invade her soil, to divide her territory, to 
devastate her fields, to overturn her government, to 
bombard her towns and to slay her sons ? 

The fact that the Federal Government, in dealing 
with the seceded States, found it impossible to lay 
down and follow out to the end any consistent 
policy, gives at least a suggestion that the Federal 
Constitution did not very clearly lay down the prin- 
ciple of coercion. First, the seceded States were 
not out of the Union, and could not go out ; then, 
at last, they could go out and were out, and must 
be brought back by " reconstruction " measures. 
First, the Federal Government had no right and no 
intention to interfere with slavery, but only to 
maintain the Union ; but at last its armies were 



CONCLUSION. 103 

" armies of freedom," its battles were " battles of 
freedom," and its victories were " victories of free- 
dom." 

In short, let North and South do justice to each 
other. Then good will and fraternity will come back, 
and no Southerner will be tempted any longer to 
give a spiteful application to that verse of Dryden, 

"But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong.'' 



REMINISCENCES AND ADDRESSES. 



A TRIBUTE FROM A CLASSMATE. 

BY GENERAI, GEORGE W. JONES, 
Ex-United States Senator. 

MR. DAVIS and I became college mates in Tran- 
sylvania University, in Lexington, Kentucky, 
in the month of October, 1821. He remained 
there until 1823, when he went to the West Point 
Military Academy, N. Y. I remained at the uni- 
versity, and graduated there on the 13th of July, 
1825. He was graduated from the United States 
Military Academy in the spring of 1828, and imme- 
diately assigned to duty as a second lieutenant of 
infantry at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien (then 
Michigan Territory, now in the State of Wisconsin). 
At that time I was engaged in the mining and smelt- 
ing of lead ore (galena), merchandising and farming 
business at Sinsinawa Mound (now in Grant County, 
Wisconsin), then in the Territory of Michigan. I 
went into this business at the suggestion of Doctor 
Lewis F. Linn, of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., who was my 
family physician there whilst I was reading law in 
the office of Messrs. Scott & Allen, of that place. 
Doctor Linn advised me to leave the law office and 
confinement as the only means of restoring my 

health, which had been greatly impaired by constant 

107 



108 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

application in college and as a law student for five 
or six years or more. 

In the summer of 1828, whilst engaged at Sin- 
sinawa Mound in the avocations referred to, Jeffer- 
son Davis came to my log cabin one night, accom- 
panied by an orderly sergeant, and inquired whether 
Mr. Jones resided there, and upon being informed (it 
being in the night), asked whether he could be accom- 
modated with a night's lodging. I replied that he 
could, but that his fare would be very poor, as I had 
no other bed than a very small bunk in one corner 
of my cabin. I could, however, give him some 
buffalo robes and blankets, and that, having no 
stable, his horses could be hobbled out as my own 
horse was. He asked me if I had ever been to 
Transylvania University. I replied that I had. I 
had before that inquired " Where he was going and 
where he was from." " To Fort Crawford," he said, 
" and from Galena." I said, " You are twelve miles 
off your road, and there is no road from here to 
Prairie du Chien." He asked me if I recollected a 
college boy at Lexington by the name of Jeff. Davis. 
I responded that I could never forget that dear 
friend. He said, " I am Jeff." I sprang from my 
door into the dark and drew hini from his horse. 
He had come out expressly to visit me. "VVe talked 
nearly all night of our college-boy days, and he 
remained with me several days. Often, during the 



A TRIBUTE FEOM A CLASSMATE. 109 

summer and fall, he made me delightful visits. He 
informed me of his course, etc., at West Point, and 
I related mine at Lexington after he left there in 
1823. I told him of my loss of health and of the 
advice of Dr. Linn that I should quit the law office, 
high living and a sedentary life, and go to hard 
work, coarse food, exercise in the open air and on 
horseback, etc., etc., as the only means of regaining 
my health and of getting Josephine Gregoire for my 
wife, as I did on the 7th day of January next there- 
after at Ste. Genevieve, Mo. I told dear Jeff, of how 
I had built those two seventeen feet square log cabins 
in two days from the standing trees, carrying up two 
corners thereof myself, putting on the clap-board 
roofs, the pine-plank unplaned floor, the batten door, 
and one eight by ten twelve-light window, the 
counter and shelves, etc., of pine plank which I had 
brought from Ste. Genevieve, Mo. ; that being the 
first work at carpentering that I had ever done, but 
that I was a natural born mechanic, musician and 
dancer. Strictly following out Dr. Linn's advice, 
given me at Ste. Genevieve, Mo., in the spring of 
1827, had restored me to health and vigor, as I have 
never since been confined one clay, though I am now 
upwards of eighty-seven years old. 

Jefibrson Davis was considered at Transylvania 
University, whilst he remained there with me, the 
most active, intelligent and splendid-looking young 



110 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

man in the College, although he had, as college mates, 
such young gentlemen as Gustavus A. Henry — the 
afterwards Eagle Orator of the South, Edward A. 
Hannegan, the Indiana statesman and orator, and 
such other distinguished men in after years as Hon. 
John M. Bass, the distinguished son-in-law of Felix 
Grundy, of Nashville, Tenn., Hon. Jno. W. Tib- 
batts, the Moreheads, Jesse D. Bright, David R. 
Atchison, Solomon W. Downs and many others of 
like distinction w^ith whom Davis and I served as 
brother Congressmen in both Houses in after years, 
and up to the Civil War of 1861-65. 

After I became a married man and built a much 
better dwelling-house at Sinsinawa Mound, Mr. 
Davis very often visited me there and became as a 
member of my family, and greatly attached to and 
beloved by my wife, children, adopted children, my 
brother-in-law, A. L. Gregoire, my two nieces, 
Misses Mary and Eliza Brady — afterwards the wives 
of Jacob Wyeth, M.D., and Col. Geo. W. Campbell, 
of Galena, 111., the latter a Federal officer in 
1861-65. 

I served as General Henry Dodge's aide-de-camp 
during the Black Hawk War of 1832, whilst Jeffer- 
son Davis was a lieutenant in the same campaign, 
under the then Colonel Zachary Taylor, President of 
the United States from the 4th of March, 1849, 
until he died, in July of that year. General W. S. 



A TRIBUTE FROM A CLASSMATE. HI 

Harney, then a captain, was in the same command 
with us. He, Colonel Taylor and Jefferson Davis 
often shared their tents with me in bad weather and 
divided their rations also with me, we of the militia 
having no tents whatever, and were often without 
bread. I had been well acquainted with Colonel 
Taylor and Captain Harney in the city of St. Louis, 
Mo., as early as 1824. Hence, my intimacy and 
the sharer of their kindness and Davis' in the 
Indian War with the Sacs and Foxes, Winnebagoes, 
etc. 

After the war and the treaty with the Sacs and 
Foxes, made by General Winfield Scott and General 
Henry Dodge, a short distance above the present 
city of Davenport, la., which I myself attended and 
participated in making, with Keokuk and other 
chiefs, and when Black Hawk was deposed, the 
lead miners of Illinois, Wisconsin, then Michigan 
Territory, et al., such as the Langworthies, the 
Camps, the Dodges, Harrisons, Wheelers, Foleys, 
Smiths, Lorimers, Gratiots, Jordans, McKnights, 
Lorains, Brophys, Carrolls, etc., etc., flocked in great 
numbers over the river to the near vicinity of Julien 
Dubuque's deserted lead mines, at and near Catico 
and the present city of Dubuque, and took posses- 
sion thereof, as squatters, miners, merchants, 
artisans, etc., etc. As soon as the same was made 
known to the administration of the then President 



112 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

of the United States, General Andrew Jackson, his 
Secretary of War, Hon. John Forsyth, issued orders 
to Colonel Zachary Taylor, then in command at Fort 
Crawford, to have those intruders, the squatters, 
removed therefrom. Colonel Taylor immediately 
dispatched Lieutenant George Wilson, then of his 
command, with what was deemed a sufficient 
number of United States infantry to the Dubuque 
lead mines, to drive from them the squatters at the 
point of the bayonet, if necessary. The squatters 
laughed at the order, and soon afterwards Lieutenant 
Gardineer was sent down with an increased number 
of troops, to effect what Lieutenant Wilson had 
failed to do. Lieutenant Gardineer was as unsuc- 
cessful as Wilson had been, although he (Gardineer) 
destroyed many cabins and miners' huts, their 
wagons, teams, etc. Colonel Taylor, then, having 
great confidence in Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, sent 
him down from Fort Crawford with an increased 
number of infantry troops to perform the duty in the 
very cold mid-winter and deep snow, in 1832 and 
1833. Lieutenant Davis encamped with ^his com- 
mand a very few yards north of the present tunnel 
and the now great Iron Bridge of the Illinois Cen- 
tral Railroad, on the east side of the river, in what 
is now known as East Duhuque, formerly and then 
as Jordan's Ferry, in Jo Daviess County, 111. Mr. 
Davis immediately went in person across the river 



A TRIBUTE FROM A CLASSMATE. 113 

and commenced a very different course of action to 
that which had been pursued by his predecessors, 
Gardineer and Wilson, without any of his command, 
save, perhaps, an orderly-sergeant, and commenced 
to reason with the intruders upon what were yet 
Indian lands, as the treaty made by Generals Scott, 
Dodge, et al, had not been ratified by the Senate of 
the United States, if, indeed, it had been sent into 
that body for its ratification and approval. He was 
not very long in convincing such men as the Lang- 
worthy family. Colonel H. T. Camp, the Hamp- 
steads, Lorimers and others, of the folly of resisting 
the strong Army of the Government of the United 
States. He found considerable trouble, however, in 
convincing two Irish brothers by the name of Har- 
rison, who had struck, what they believed to be, a 
splendid prospect, if not a great lead, of the precious 
ore. He assured them that their claim to the 
mining lot of some ten acres, from which they had 
already raised some fifty to seventy-five thousand 
pounds of ore, should be respected and retained for 
them by the then Agent of the United States Lead 
Mines, at Galena, 111. — Major Thos. C. Legate, of the 
United States Army, who was his (Davis') personal 
friend. His conciliatory course with those squatters 
convinced them that " discretion was the better 
part of valor," and great numbers of miners, smelt- 
ers, store- keepers, teamsters, laborers, etc., deter- 



114 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

mined to leave the country en masse, and await the 
action of the Congress of the United States, or 
rather the Senate of the United States. 

The Harrisons and all others, after the treaty was 
ratified, were restored to their possessions, and they 
all, without exception, became the warm friends and 
admirers of Jefferson Davis. I myself bought that 
prospect of the Harrisons and paid them ten thou- 
sand dollars in gold for their claim, which has ever 
since been known as the Harrison alias Kil bourn 
Lead, now the Karrick and wholly owned by myself 
at this late day, though it has passed through the 
hands of Captain Geo. Ord Karrick, Benjamin Kil- 
bourn, Alexander Levi, Geo. W. Starr, Colonel 
Mason, the original Chief Engineer of the Illinois 
Central Railroad, and is now wholly owned by my- 
self, as the successor of the above-named and other 
persons. 

I was about to omit that there was but one woman 
amongst the squatters when Lieutenant Davis in- 
duced the whole community, save her, to leave those 
mines in the cold winter of 1832-33. That woman 
was the late Mrs. Lawrence, then bearing the name 
of her first husband. Mr. Davis, because of the ex- 
treme severity of the winter, permitted her to con- 
tinue to occupy her log cabin. She remained during 
the residue of her life, the devoted and grateful 
friend of Jefferson Davis. She was a strict member 



A TRIBUTE FROM A CLASSMATE. 115 

of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Dubuque, 
and died there only some twelve months since, be- 
loved by all who knew her. She never met me that 
she did not inquire for our mutual friend, Lieutenant 
Davis. I called to see her but a very few days 
before her death, when, on her dying-bed, she sent 
her warmest regards to and best wishes for our 
absent friend; although, like the members of her 
church in Iowa, generally, she was for the Union, 
and opposed to secession, as I myself was. But 
she believed Mr. Davis to be an honest man and a 
true friend to the whole country, whether he was 
for secession or not. 

Soon after the Black Hawk War of 1832, Mr. 
Davis became the Adjutant of the First Regiment of 
United States Cavalry, whose heroic and noble com- 
mander was General Henry Dodge, whose aide-de- 
camp I was in that war. He and General Dodge 
became friends and admirers of each other during 
that campaign, if, indeed, they were not personal 
friends at Dodgeville and Mineral Point, in Wiscon- 
sin, hefore that Black Hawk War. Their association 
in the Indian War, and as brother officers of the 
Cavalry Corps of Dragoons, in both Houses of Con- 
gress and whilst Mr. Davis was Secretary of War, 
under General Franklin Pierce, President of the 
United States, from the 4th of March, 1853, until 
the 4th of March, 1857, and afterwards in and out 



116 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

of Congress, caused the formation of an intimacy, 
friendship and confidence between those great and 
good men and patriots, which I well know continued 
to exist whilst they both lived. I speak under- 
standingly on this point, because I was General 
Dodge's admirer and friend from my childhood, both 
of us having been born at Vincennes, Indiana, and 
we having lived together at Ste. Genevieve, Mo., 
where I was Clerk of the District Court of the 
United States, whilst General Dodge was the Marshal 
of the United States for Missouri, and also, because 
of our intimacy and devoted friendship in Wisconsin, 
and also in the Senate of the United States. General 
Dodge, as the Senator in Congress from Wisconsin, 
felt bound to obey the instructions of his Legislature 
on the subject of abolitionism, the Missouri Compro- 
mise and other like questions. Mr. Davis and I often 
voted against him on these questions; but as we 
were all three Democrats, the intercourse and friend- 
ship which had always existed between us was 
never, for one moment, interrupted, and I know that 
General Dodge died the warm admirer and friend of 
Mr. Davis, and, like myself, would have sustained 
him for any political or military position in the 
United States after, as well as before the late unfor- 
tunate Civil War. And such do I firmly believe 
was the opinion and feeling of General Augustus C. 
Dodge, the son of General Henry Dodge, who, as a 



A TRIBUTE FEOM A CLASSMATE. 117 

2^rivate, served under his father in the Black Hawk 
War, where he, too, formed the friendship and confi- 
dence of Jefferson Davis, which existed whilst we 
were brother United States Senators and warm sup- 
porters of the administration of President Pierce, 
who sent him as the representative of the United 
States to Spain, at the court at Madrid, where he 
occupied an exalted position as the Minister of the 
United States. I refer thus particularly to the opin- 
ions and feelings of these two life-long personal and 
political friends, because I know that they, like my- 
self and all others who knew Jefferson Davis well, 
were always aware of the great injustice and wrong 
which has been done to that hero, statesman and 
patriot, ever since the inauguration of the late Civil 
War, which he lamented as sincerely as any man, ^ 
living or dead, and which he earnestly endeavored 
to prevent in every honest and patriotic manner 
consistent with his position as a Southern man. I 
firmly believe that the future historian will do justice 
to him and his section, when the "sober second 
thought shall prevail " in our beloved country. 

But since the termination of the late inter-state 
war, all sorts of slander, detraction and ridiculous 
reports and stories have been fulminated, printed, 
published and scattered broad-cast over the land to 
injure the fair fame and good name of Mr. Davis. 
Amongst other ridiculous creations it has been pub- 



118 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

lished and circulated through the newspapers that 
Mr. Davis stole away in the night-time, from his res- 
idence in Prairie du Chien, the daughter of Colonel 
Zachary Taylor, and that he took her across the 
Mississippi River into Iowa, and that they were there 
married by a Catholic priest, whom Mr. Davis had 
induced to aid him in his nefarious scheme. The 
fact is, as I well know, that Mr. Davis married Miss 
Knox Taylor near Louisville, Ky., in the residence 
of a near blood relation (her aunt) and with the 
entire and full consent of every member of Colonel 
Taylor's family. Colonel Hercules L. Dousman, of 
Prairie du Chien, who was an intimate and confi- 
dential friend of both Colonel Taylor and Mr. Davis, 
and always one of my earnest supporters in all of 
my contests for delegate to Congress from Michigan, 
Wisconsin and Iowa, assured me that Colonel Taylor 
never was unfriendly to Mr. Davis, either before or 
after his marriage to Miss Taylor, and that he made 
no objection to it. After Mr. Davis' appointment as 
Adjutant of the First Regiment of United States 
Cavalry under my old commander and life-long 
friend. General Dodge, I never met with him until 
in the early winter of 1837-38, when he reached 
Washington City from the city of Havana, in Cuba, 
whither he had been for the restoration of his health, 
which had become greatly impaired on his farm or 
plantation in Mississippi. He called on me at my 



A TKIBUTE FKOM A CLASSMATE. 119 

then boarding-house, at Dowson's, on Capital Hill, 
some 150 or 200 yards northeast of the present 
Senate Chamber, where I messed with Senator 
Benton and Doctor Linn of Mo. Wm. Allen, Senator 
from Ohio, Hon. E. A. Hannegan of Indiana and 
some forty other members of Congress. I soon 
induced my old college-mate to become my guest, 
I having two good rooms besides our common 
parlor, and I sent immediately my servant for his 
baggage, at what is now the Metropolitan Hotel 
(then Brown's). One one occasion Doctor Linn, 
Allen, Davis and I went to a large party together in 
the west end. At about midnight Doctor Linn pro- 
posed to go home, as he was not feeling well. We 
soon found Davis and Allen in the banque ting-room, 
eating supper and drinking champagne with I. I. 
Crittenden, Haws and others. Crittenden said : 
" Linn, you and Jones go home and Haws and I will 
take Allen and Davis with us, as we have a carriage 
to ourselves." So Doctor Linn and I left them. 
Doctor Linn and I were soon in bed, and in a short 
time we heard in the distance the stentorian voice of 
Allen, coming up the Hill. Soon they entered 
Doctor Linn's room, where I was in bed with him. 
Davis was without a hat, the blood, mud and water 
dripping down over his pale face, Allen all the while 
repeating the speech which he had been delivering 
to Davis, and which he (Allen) had made when he 



120 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ran for the House of Representatives of the United 
States in Ohio, against Governor Me Arthur, his 
future father-in-law. Doctor Linn soon dressed 
Davis' severe wounds on his head. I went into 
Davis' room, got clean, dry clothes and then took 
him into his room and put him to bed. The next 
morning early I went in to see whether Davis would 
soon be ready for breakfast. I found him uncon- 
scious, ran back and told Doctor Linn, who took a 
bottle of ether and giving me one of camphor, we 
commenced the proper application and rubbing, when 
Davis in a short time was restored to consciousness 
Doctor Linn said that Davis would have been dead 
in a few minutes had we not gone to his relief. 
During Mr. Davis' sojourn that winter with me he 
became well acquainted especially with our mess, and 
all became greatly attached to him and greatly ad- 
mired him. I informed Hon. Robt. J. Walker, then 
a Senator from Mississippi, that I had a young friend 
and old college-mate with me, and advised him to 
call on and pay him some attention, as he was one of 
his constituents. My present recollection is that he 
never became acquainted with Davis until he became 
a member of the House of Representatives. They 
afterwards became warm friends. 

In 1846 (February) I went to Washington City as 
Surveyor-General of Wisconsin from Dubuque, and 
became a boarder at the same house where my 



A TRIBUTE FROM A CLASSMATE. 121 

friends, the two Dodges (then Delegates from Wis- 
consin and Iowa), Mr. and Mrs. Davis, Ambrose H. 
Sevier, Jacob Thompson and other Members of Con- 
gress boarded. On one occasion, when sitting hy 
Davis in the House of Representatives, he said, 
" Augustus Dodge tells me that you are hard up for 
money, upon my inquiring of him as to your finan- 
cial condition." I replied that there was a judgment 
against me at home for $400, the only debt I owed. 
He took up his pen, drew a draft in my favor for 
one thousand dollars on J. U. Payne, his then com- 
mission merchant in New Orleans, and handed it to 
me. It surprised me, and I asked, " Where did you 
get money from, as the last time I saw you, in 1838, 
you were yourself pressed for money." He said he 
had made good cotton crops on his plantation. I 
drew my note for $1000 in his favor, at ten per cent, 
interest, and handed it to him. He tore the note 
into pieces, threw them under his feet, saying, 
" When you get more money than you know what 
to do with, you may pay me, not before." In 1853, 
as Secretary of War, he appointed my son, William 
A. Bodley Jones, without my knowledge, at a hint 
from Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin, to whom my 
son wrote on the subject a confidential letter, I 
having refused to make such an application for him, 
as I had other constituents who desired such appoint- 
ments. During my absence at Bogota in 1861 my 



122 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

son, George R. G. Jones, left Dubuque, Iowa, and 
went to Nashville, Tenn., Hon. I. G. Harris, now of 
the United States Senate, being then Governor of the 
State. He sent for him, and immediately commis- 
sioned him in the Confederate Army, upon learning 
that he had been graduated at the W. M. Institute, 
and that he had gone South to volunteer in the ser- 
vice of that section, and that he was a son of mine. 
My eldest son, Charles S. Jones, was then at Dubuque, 
awaiting my return home from Bogota. Soon after 
my return he, too, left Dubuque with his young wife, 
under pretence of visiting her parents at Frankfort, 
Ky., but with the intention, also, of tendering his 
services in the cause of the Confederacy, but without 
letting me or any other member of my family know 
what his real intention was. On reaching Richmond 
he immediately applied to President Davis for em- 
ployment as a clerk in one of the departments. 
The President told him that no son of his father or 
mother could ask in vain for position under him, and 
gave him a note to Mr. Treholm for employment. 
In a very short time Charles received an appoint- 
ment as an adjutant-general from General Bushrod 
Johnson, under whom he and his brother had both 
graduated. These evidences of the friendship which 
existed between Mr. Davis and myself and family 
are extremely gratifying to me, and to every mem- 
ber of my family, the dead as well as the living. 



A TEIBUTE FKOM A CLASSMATE. 123 

Some six to eight years since Mr. Davis wrote, 
me, informing me that a man living at Independence, 
Iowa, had his wife's album, and requested me to try 
and get it for her, as it contained the likenesses of 
their children, living and dead, and of many old 
friends. I immediately wrote to a friend at Inde- 
pendence, and was informed that the man, whose 
name, I believe, was Moore, had removed to Water- 
loo. So I took the next train, and on reaching 
there, I learned to my regret that Moore had re- 
moved from Waterloo out into Tama County, some 
thirty miles farther out. So I got my abolition 

cousin, Mr. Tom P , to introduce me to some 

reliable Democratic attorney ; he took me to the 
law office of Messrs. Boies, Allen & Couch, when 
the latter gentleman agreed to accompany me 
the next morning to Tama County. The next 
morning, after early breakfast, I called for my attor- 
ney, and we were soon wending our way to Moore's 
Mill, in Tama County, some one hundred and thirty 
to one hundred and fifty miles west of Dubuque. 
Before reaching Moore's my attorney drew up a writ 
of attachment or replevin, and procured an officer, 
a young man of some eighteen to twenty years, to 
serve the paper, if necessary. On reaching within a 
mile of Moore's Mr. Couch remained behind in the 
woods, as he would probably be known as an attor- 
ney. On entering the house, which my young officer 



124 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

knew, we found a rough-looking man seated on one 
side of a table, whilst a younger man, a woman and 
two or three little children were seated on the other 
side, where they had been eating. I said to the 
older man, " I understand that you have the album 
of Jefferson Davis, the Southern Secessionist, and 
that you wish to sell it." He replied, " It is my son 
who has it, not I." I then said to the son, " I am 
told that you wish to, or will, sell the album." He 
replied, " There is such an album in this neighbor- 
hood." '• Well, I will give $10 for it, if it be the 
same album that I once saw in Washington, and it 
is in good condition." He arose from his seat, went 
into an adjoining room, and I saw him through the 
crack of the door beckon to his wife to follow him, 
which she did. I then said to the father, " It can't 
be, surely, the album of Mrs. Davis, away out here 
in Iowa." " Yes, it is," he replied, " for I saw it and 
other things taken out of Mrs. Davis' trunk at For- 
tress Monroe, when Jeff, and his wife were there as 
prisoners." The son and woman then returned to 
the room, when, holding his two hands behind his 
back, under his coat, he said, "You'll pay $40 for it 
if I can get it." " Yes, I will, if it be the same album 
that I have seen in the Secessionist's house in Wash- 
ington City, and it is in good condition, with the 
likenesses, etc., in it." He then handed it to me, 
when I deliberately looked through it and said, " My 



A TRIBUTE FROM A CLASSMATE. 125 

own likeness, those of Generals Lee, Johnston and 
others, besides the little children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Davis, are not here ; where are they ? and the book 
is very dirty and much soiled," etc. He said, " We 
have given many of the likenesses away to our 
friends since we got it." I then handed it to the 
constable and said, " Serve your writ." He said, " I 
attach this album," when the old man said aloud, 
and looking savagely at me, " I thought you were 
some old Secesh," and the woman, with vengeance 
in her eyes, said, " You are no gentleman." I replied, 
" How would you, madam, like to have the album 
containing your little children's likenesses, the dead 
as well as the living, stolen out of your trunk, with 
your jewelry and other valuables ?" I said, " Con- 
stable, let us go," and we walked out of the house, 
got into his buggy and drove out through the village 
to Mr. Couch, who, as soon as he saw me, said, 
" What success, general ?" " Here it is," holding it 
up, "and I would not take a thousand dollars for it." 
He asked if we had given Moore a copy of the writ. 
I replied, "We have not, but we'll return and do so." 
" No," he said, " I will now go back and do that, 
but you had better remain here as I did." On Mr. 
Couch's return, he said, " I found Moore's house full 
of enraged men, and swearing vengeance against 
you." The old man told Mr. Couch that he saw 
" the d — d old Secessionist with his hand in his coat 



126 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

pocket on his pistol." That pistol was handed me as 
I left the door of his house in the morning by my 
good abolition cousin and friend, he insisting that I 
should take it. I believe it saved me from a 
severe beating, if not my life. On my return to 
Waterloo, I desired to pay my attorneys, Messrs. 
Boies & Couch, for Mr. Couch's day's service, etc., 
but they would receive no fee from me, although 
I had never before seen either of the two gentle- 
men. I since have had the pleasure to help elect 
Mr. Couch as the Judge of our District Court and to 
make Mr. Boies the Governor of our State. Mr. 
Couch paid Moore some time thereafter ten dollars 
for me, which sum Mr. Davis sent me on receipt of 
their stolen family album. 

In the summer or fall of 1853 or 1854, Colonel 
Long, of the United States Engineer Corps, when at 
Dubuque inspecting the harbor improvement, un- 
der the Act of Congress, was applied to by my 
brother-in-law, Mr. Charles Gregoire, deceased, for 
permission to change the plan and survey of the 
same, he, Mr. Gregoire, being the then President of 
the Dubuque Harbor Improvement Company. Col- 
onel Long refused to authorize the change, but sug- 
gested to Mr. Gregoire to get me to ask the then 
Secretary of War, Mr. Davis, to permit the change 
asked for to be made. On reaching Washington to 
resume my seat in the Senate, I made the request of 



A TRIBUTE FROM A CLASSMATE. 127 

the President, Mr. Gregoire, known to Secretary 
Davis^ who very promptly complied with the request 
of Mr. Gregoire. That change constitutes the pres- 
ent Ice Steamboat Harbor, an invaluable improve- 
ment. 

Some eight or ten years ago, at a meeting in 
Dubuque of the Agricultural Society of the State, a 
resolution was unoMimously adopted, requestiing 
Hon. Jefferson Davis to come to Dubuque, from his 
then residence at Beauvoir, and deliver an address, 
and Mr. Solon M. Langworthy Avas appointed to and 
came to me and requested me to write to Mr. Davis 
to accept the invitation. I did so, and received a 
favorable reply. A short time thereafter, Mr. Davis 
came to this city (St. Louis), and after delivering an 
agricultural address at De Soto, some sixty miles 
from this city, wrote a letter to Mr. Langworthy and 
myself, declining to go to Dubuque. 

About seven years since, a scurrilous article was 
republished in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and 
taken from an Iowa paper, accusing Mr. Davis of 
having once been caught cheating at a game of cards 
for money at Prairie du Chien, and that he was then 
slapped in his face by one of the players, who was 
known to be a dangerous character. I called on the 
editor of the St. Louis paper and asked for the author 
of that article. I was not given any satisfaction by 
the editor. I was afterwards informed by a Bellevieu, 



128 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

Iowa, editor, that the story was entirely destitute of 
truth, its author, now dead, having been a notorious 
falsifier. I told this story to my lately deceased and 
noble old friend, General Wm. S. Harney, at his 
home at Pass Christian, when he denounced the 
same in bitter terms, saying that Mr. Davis was 
never a card-player, and that no man w^as ever per- 
mitted to slap him with impunity at Prairie du 
Chien, where he was associated with him, or at any 
other place. 



AN ABLE MAN AND A LEADER. 

• BY JAMES CAMPBKLIv, 
Ex-Postmaster General of the United States, 

I KNEW Jefferson Davis well. I was intimately 
associated with him from 1853 to 1857, during 

the administration of President Pierce, when we 
were both in the Cabinet together, he as Secretary 
of War and I as Postmaster-General. 

I first made Davis' acquaintance ih March, 1853, 
when we entered the Cabinet together, and our as- 
sociation soon became personal, as well as official, 
for — although I was a Northern man and he a 
Southern, and he was an older man than I — he 
seemed to take a fancy to me, while I respected 
and admired him. Our relations were always 
pleasant, and we were together from the beginning 
to the end of President Pierce's term. 

General Pierce's Cabinet was peculiar in more 
ways than one. It was the only Cabinet in the his- 
tory of the country that remained intact through- 
out the entire Presidential term, and it was singu- 
larly harmonious. We had the entire confidence 
of the President and he had ours, and he trusted 
more to his Cabinet officers than any President has 

9 129 



130 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

done since. The Cabinet nowadays seems to be a 
mere corps of clerks who record the President's 
wishes. Pierce's Cabinet officers worked together 
for four years without the slightest difficulty or 
dissension. 

A LITTLE DISAGREEMENT. 

There was never but one occasion during our four 
years together in the Cabinet when Mr. Davis and 
I had any difference of opinion which brought us 
into conflict, and it was not at all a serious one. In 
fact, the incident is so trivial that if it possesses 
any value now it is because anything that relates to 
Jefferson Davis has perhaps a certain biographical 
interest just now. 

It was early in President Pierce's administration. 
In pursuance of my duty as Postmaster-General, at 
a meeting of the Cabinet I laid bel'ore the President 
certain recommendations as to appointments to the 
post-offices in various States — the more important 
post-offices, which were to be filled by the President 
himself, and which were known as Presidential ap- 
pointments. ^ 
DAVIS DIDN'T LIKE IT. 

Among other recommendations were a number in 
Mississippi — Davis' State — and some of the candi- 
dates recommended for appointment were men who 
had opposed Davis in his contest with Foote. Davis 



AN ABLE MAN AND A LEADER. 131 

was a man of very intense likes and dislikes, and 
he didn't at all like the idea of his political foes 
coming in for patronage, and he said so. But I in- 
sisted upon the list being put through. 

The President saw there was likely to be words 
between us over the Mississippi names, and he said, 
quietly : 

" Mr. Postmaster-General, please put those aside ; 
I will take them up at another time." 

I went over to the White House to see the Presi- 
dent next day, and he said to me : " I have heard 
Mr. Davis' objections to those names, but you were 
right. Make out those appointments." 

President Pierce would never permit any political 
discussions at the Cabinet meetings. He had great 
tact, and we got along with wonderful harmony in 
the midst of a most exciting period. 

Mr. Davis came into the Cabinet under somewhat 
peculiar circumstances. He had been elected to the 
House of Eepresentatives in 1845 from Mississippi, 
but had not particularly distinguished himself, when 
the Mexican War broke out. He had been edu- 
cated as a soldier at West Point, as everybody 
knows, but had left the army and settled on a Mis- 
sissippi plantation named Briarfield, which his 
brother, Joe Davis, a very rich man for those days, 
had given him. When the Mexican War broke out 
he at once resigned his seat in Congress and re- 



132 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

entered the army, where he served with especial 
distinction. 

LEADING A FORLORN HOPE. 

When the war was over he was returned to the 
Senate, his colleague from Mississippi being Henry 
S. Foote, a very able man. Foote and Davis dif- 
fered on the compromise measures of Clay in 1851, 
Foote sustaining them strongly, while Davis very 
strongly opposed them. The contest between Davis 
and Foote afterward became very bitter. 

There was to be an election for Governor of Mis- 
sissippi that year, and the Democrats had nominated 
General Quitman. As the canvass progressed it 
became evident to the leaders of the party that 
Quitman was a weak candidate and would be de- 
feated. He was prevailed upon to withdraw three 
weeks before the election, and Jefferson Davis in- 
duced to resign his seat in the Senate, take Quit- 
man's place and lead a forlorn hope in the fight for 
the Governorship. 

Davis made a plucky battle, and although he was 
attacked with pneumonia after a few days, and was 
unable to make speeches, he came within about 900 
votes of being elected. 

After this defeat Davis remained quietly on his 
plantation until the Presidential canvass between 
Pierce and Scott, when Davis took the stump for 



AN ABLE MAN AND A LEADER. 133 

Pierce with enthusiasm and ability, and contributed 
largely to his carrying Mississippi. This service 
led to President Pierce tendering him the portfolio 
of Secretary of War, and so he came into the Cab- 
inet. 

Mr. Davis impressed me as a firm, unyielding 
man, of strong attachments politically and person- 
ally, and equally strong in his dislikes. I believe 
Davis was a conscientious, earnest man. I am sure 
that he always meant to be in the right. 

He was unquestionably an able man and a 
leader, and there always seemed to be something 
of the soldier about him — the result of inheritance, 
probably, for his father had been a soldier. Plia 
tastes lay in that [direction, and he was in a 
congenial place as Secretary of War. Most of his 
nearest personal friends in Washington were army 
men. 

I know that Jefferson Davis is not popularly 
known as a social, genial man, but he was, as I 
came to know him. But he was not much of a 
diner out or anything of that sort. He was very 
quiet and domestic in his habits and correct in his 
private life, and was exceedingly temperate both in 
eating and drinking. These abstemious habits he 
must have kept up all his life, or he never could 
have lived to be eighty-one years of age. Mr. 
Davis was in many respects one of the most lovable 



134 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

men whom I have ever seen. I may say, to know 
him was to love him. I am not surprised at the 
great afifection which the people of the South had 
for him. In honoring his memory they honor 
themselves. 

WIDE EDUCATION. 

Jefferson Davis was one of the best educated men 
whom I ever came in contact with. His acquire- 
ments were broad and often surprised us. Caleb 
Gushing, who was in the Cabinet with us, was one 
of the most highly cultured men of his time, as all 
the world knows. He was famous for his retentive 
memory and an extent and range of knowledge 
that was encyclopaedic. President Jeff Davis wasn't 
far behind Gushing, and that is saying a great deal. 

A CASE IN POINT. 

As an instance, I remember on one occasion we 
were talking about a certain medicine. Mr. Davis 
went into a minute analysis and scientific descrip- 
tion of its nature and effects, and seemed to know 
as much about it as though he were an educated 
physician who had made a special study of the 
subject. 

When he had finished I asked : " For Heaven's 
sake, Davis, where did you learn all that ? " 

"Judge," he replied, "you forget that I have had 



AN ABLE MAN AND A LEADER. 135 

to learn something of medicine so as to take care 
of the negroes on my plantation." 

Davis was a reading man, especially upon his- 
torical subjects. He was particularly interested in 
the political history of his country, and I think 
there have been few men who were better posted 
in that line than Mr. Davis. 

In politics he was one of the most stubborn 
slavery men whom I ever met. 

A DISCIPLE OF CALHOUN. 

He was a political disciple of Calhoun in all his 
most extreme States' rights views. And although 
I could not agree with Mr. Davis on this point, and 
it was a time of intense partisanship and the bit- 
terest feelings, which were soon to break out in 
secession and civil war, we never had an unpleas- 
ant dispute. Yet we always talked with great 
freedom. Davis and other Southern leaders, and 
especially the Senators from the Southern States 
with whom I was brought into constant official in- 
tercourse, talked with me with more frankness than 
to most Northern men, I suppose because I was the 
son-in-law of an Alabama slave-holder. In those 
days Northern and Southern Democrats alike felt 
that there would be great trouble in the country if 
Fremont was elected. Everything that the influ- 
ence of the administration could do to turn the 



136 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

scale in favor of Buchanan was done. I went into 
the fight as earnestly as anybody, because I feared 
for the future, 

IN I860. 

From the time President Pierce's Cabinet sepa- 
rated, in 1857, I did not see Mr. Davis again for 
three years. It was late in the summer of 18G0, 
during the exciting political campaign which ended 
in the election of Abraham Lincoln. The whole 
country was intensely agitated, and there was great 
latent bitterness between the North and the South, 
for the two sections were arrayed against each other 
on the slavery question, and the South was ready 
to spring at the throat of the North. 

Mr. Davis passed through Philadelphia on his 
way South. He had been to West Point as one of 
the Government Board of Visitors to the Military 
Academy. I called upon my old colleague at the 
Continental Hotel and had a long talk with him 
upon the grave political questions which then filled 
every thinking man with apprehension. We were 
both Democrats and both anxious for the success 
of our party, but from far difierent standpoints. 
Both of us were very much in earnest, and we sat 
deeply engrossed in anxious talk until the stage 
was at the door to take him to his train. 

There were some things said during that conver- 



AN ABLE MAN AND A LEADER. I37 

sation which made a deep impression upon me, 
and which I have never forgotten. Mr. Davis was 
perturbed — uneasy — and I found that he was as 
anxious to consult with me as I was to see him. 

THE AMALGAMATED TICKET. 

The Pennsylvania Democrats had tried to unite 
on what was called the Amalgamated Electoral 
ticket. There were two rival Democratic Presiden- 
tial candidates in the field— Douglas and Breckin- 
ridge — and because of this serious split in the party 
there was great danger that the Republicans would 
elect Lincoln. Many leading Democrats, however, 
did not appreciate the situation, and felt secure in 
the strength of the party. I found that Mr. Davis 
was one of these. The fact that Democrats in 
Pennsylvania and in some other States had united 
on this amalgamated electoral ticket led many to 
underrate the serious nature of the division. 

APPEALING TO MR. DAVIS. 

In beginning the conversation I told Mr. Davis 
that I was anxious to talk to him because of his 
commanding influence in the South. I told him I 
feared the future, and besought him to prevent, if 
possible, any outbreak in the South in the event of 
a Democratic defeat and a triumph of the party of 
abolition. 



138 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Mr. Davis replied that he did not fear Democratic 
disaster, that the amalgamated ticket in Pennsylva- 
nia seemed likely to win. 

I earnestly told him that that was a mistake; 
that he must not allow himself to be deceived, and 
I gave him my reason at some length. I told him 
that Lincoln would certainly carry Pennsylvania by 
a very large majority and that he would certainly 
be the next President. 

Mr. Davis was greatly surprised, and I could see 
that he was deeply affected. 

" Your news has chilled me," he said. He ex- 
plained that he had been talking with Democrats 
in New York who had given him an entirely differ- 
ent impression. " But," he added, " 1 have never 
known you to be deceived as to the politics of 
Pennsylvania, and I believe you are right." 

"DO NOTHING RASH." 

I then said to him : " Mr, Davis, take it for 
granted that Abraham Lincoln will be the next 
President of the United States. Now, what are 
you men in the South going to do? Let me urge 
you, Mr. Davis, for God's sake, to stand firm. Do 
nothing rash. You have got the Senate and the 
House. Lincoln can do nothing ; he is powerless." 

Mr. Davis listened with deep attention to all I 
said, and sat buried in thought. 



AN ABLE MAN AND A LEADER. 139 

" I have told you frankly," I said to him, " what 
I am sure will be the result of the Presidential 
election. Now let me venture to prophesy what 
will occur four years hence. If you of the South 
will permit Lincoln to serve out his term I will 
pledge my life that his successor will be a Demo- 
crat." 

Mr. Davis then said, laying his hand upon my 
arm — and I have never forgotten his words, for he 
spoke with great earnestness and feeUng — 

"I LOVE THIS OLD UNION." 

"Campbell, I love this old Union. My father 
bled for it and I have fought for it. But unless you 
were in the South and knew our people, you could 
not begin to estimate the bitterness of feeling al- 
ready engendered there, and which will increase if 
Lincoln is elected." 

Just then Mrs. Davis came into the room and in- 
terrupted us. We were in the parlor of the hotel. 
She had a traveling bag in her hand and was wait- 
ing to go with her husband to the train. I rose to 
greet her, and as the coach was then waiting at the 
door Mr. Davis and I had no time to resume our 
conversation, so I bade him '-good-bye," and we 
parted. 

I never saw him again nor heard from him. A 
few months afterward — the 9th of January, 1861 — 



140 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

the State of Mississippi passed the ordinance of 
secession, Mr. Davis left his seat in the Senate at 
Washington, and a few weeks later he was made 
President of the Southern Confederacy. 



CORRECTION OF MISREPRESENTATION. 

BY J. L. M. CURRY, I.L.D, 

MORLEY, in his life of Walpole, speaks of an 
" epidemic of unreason " as a liability of his 
countrymen. In all matters pertaining to 
slavery, secession, the war between the States, and 
Jefferson Davis, their American cousins seem to 
be subject to the epidemical sin of ignorance, preju- 
dice and passion. Men, who otherwise are rigorous 
as to the evidence and proof, find, in everything 
relating to its Confederacy and leaders, no assertion 
too wild, no insinuation too incredible, no fabrication 
too absurd. There is no present hope of correcting 
misrepresentation and perversion, but as data for the 
future historian it may be well to put on record a 
few demonstrable historical facts. They will help 
to elucidate the acts and character of Mr. Davis and 
clear up some prevalent misconceptions connected 
with the attempted establishment of the Confederacy. 
II. Secession was not a new, sudden, unheard-of 
remedy on the part of sovereign States for real or 
unanticipated evils. It grew out of a well-recog- 
nized theory of government, and out of a well-known 
contention of political parties coeval with the found a- 

141 



142 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

tion of the Republic. It was a necessary inference 
from the doctrine that the government was a con- 
federacy of equal States, and that the Constitution 
was a compact to which the States were parties, and 
that each party had an equal right to judge of infrac- 
tions and oi the mode and measure of redress. The 
famous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, 
and the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legis- 
lature in 1799, the National Democratic Convention 
at Cincinnati in 1856 adopted as one of the main 
foundations of its political creed, and pledged itself 
faithfully to abide by and uphold. The ratifications 
of the Constitution of the United States by the 
States of New York, and of Rhode Island, and of 
Virginia, reserved in express language the right to 
withdraw from the Union. 

The delegates of New York declared ''•'that the 
powers of government may he reassumed hy tlie people 
lolienever it shall become necessary to their hapinness ; 
that every power, jurisdiction and right which is 
not by the said Constitution clearly delegated to the 
Congress of the United, or the departments of the 
Government thereof, remains to the peoples of the 
several States, or to their respective State govern- 
ments, to whom they may have granted the same, 
etc." Rhode Island declared "that the powers of 
government may be reassumed by the people when- 
soever it shall become necessary to their happiness." 



CORRECTION OF MISREPRESENTATION. I43 

Virginia, in giving her assent, declared "that the 
powers granted under the Constitution, being derived 
from the people of the United States, may be re- 
sumed by them whenever the same shall be per- 
verted to their injury or oppression, and that every 
power not granted thereby remains with them, and 
at their will." Mr. Josiali Quincy, of Massachusetts, 
regarded the purchase of Louisiana as invalid until 
each of the original thirteen States had signified its 
assent, and on the bill for the admission of Louisiana 
as a State into the Union in 1811, he said, " If this 
bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is vir- 
tually a dissolution of the Union ; that it will free 
the States from their moral obligation, and as it will 
be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, 
definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if 
they can, violently if they must." In 1814 Charles 
Francis Adams introduced into the Massachusetts 
Legislature a resolution in reference to the annexa- 
tion of Texas almost identical with Mr. Quincy's 
utterances in 1811, and declared that Massachusetts 
was " determined to submit to undelegated powers 
in no body of men on earth." In 1831 Maine 
declared in reference to the Northeastern Boundary 
Treaty, that it impaired her sovereign rights and 
powers, had no constitutional force or obligation, 
and that Maine was not bound by any decision which 
should be made under the treaty. The year pre- 



144 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ceding Massachusetts declared the treaty null and 
void, and in no way obligatory upon the government 
or people. In 1857 a State Disunion Convention 
was held at Worcester, in which it was resolved to 
seek " the expulsion of the slave States from the 
confederation, in which they have ever been an 
element of discord, danger and disgrace," and to 
organize a party whose candidates should be publicly 
pledged " to ignore the Federal Government, to 
refuse an oath to its Constitution, and to make the 
States free and independent communities." 

The Southern States, as previously announced, 
regarded the election of Mr. Lincoln by a sectional 
vote as involving necessarily the perversion of the 
government from its originally limited character and 
the overthrow of all those guarantees which furnished 
the slightest hope of equality and protection in the 
" irrepressible conflict " thus precipitated upon the 
minority section. The writer is not vindicating the 
secession of the States, nor deprecating the failure of 
the Confederacy; but as the right of secession is 
much misunderstood, a quotation is made from an 
article written by myself for the Philadelphia Times 
and published on 24th January, 1 880 : 

" As this is the experimentum amcis of the whole 
controversy, much misunderstood by foreigners, I 
will state it more fully. The secession of South 
Carolina may have been rash and foolish. That is 



COERECTION OF MISREPRESENTATION. I45 

not the point at issue. The naked question is, Did 
South Carolina have the right to secede ? If so, the 
allegiance of her citizens followed necessarily. The 
Hon. Stanley Matthews, a scholarly lawyer and 
statesman, in his recent address at the unveiling of 
the statue of General Thomas, said ' The rebellion of 
1861 was founded on a fundamental misconception 
of the character of the political institutions of the 
country and of the relation of the governments of 
the States to that of the United States, and a failure 
to realize the truth that behind and below these in- 
strumentalities of political action there was a constit- 
uency that was their originating and supporting 
cause, the unity of which made a nation of all the 
people.' In this extract are a petitio principii and a 
statement of fact which, as a fact, exists only in the 
minds of consolidationists. It is assumed that the 
war between the States was a rebellion, the very 
matter in issue. It is asserted that a people, or 
' a constituency,' en masse, in the aggregate, lay 
behind and originated the State and Federal govern- 
ments and fused them into a nation. The production 
of the scintilla of a historical or political fact to 
sustain the assertion may be safely challenged. 
Acting as a unit, or in the aggregate, the people of 
the United States, or a constituency behind and 
below Federal and State governments, never did a 

political act, and never can, without a thorough 
10 . 



146 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

revolution in our whole system. When and where 
did this 'constituency' ever assemble, or vote, or 
legislate, or adjudicate, or execute ? The Union, as 
a government, had as its 'originating cause' the 
people of the several States, acting in their separate 
and sovereign conventions as distinct political com- 
munities. The States, acting individually, called 
the Convention of 1787, and the States, each for 
itself, binding its citizens, ratified and thus adopted 
the Constitution. Now, whether the government, 
the Union, thus constituted, the creature of the 
States, was the final judge of the extent of the 
powers granted by the States and expressed in totidem 
verbis in the Constitution, or whether the States, as 
parties to and creators of the compact, had a right 
to judge of the extent of the powers delegated and 
reserved and to protect their citizens against the 
encroachments of the Federal Government, their 
agent, is tJie question, not to be decided by figures of 
rhetoric or sectional prejudice, but by historical 
records and the unimpeachable antecedents to the 
formation of the Federal Government or Union. 
South Carolina held that she entered the Union 
quoad lioc, to the extent of the powers delegated in 
the Constitution. So far as related to powers re- 
served and undelegated, she was out of the Union. 
She held that the Government of the United States, 
in any or all of its departments, had no more right 



CORRECTION OF MISREPRESENTATION. 147 

to govern her, within the scope of the reserved 
powers and outside of what had been delegated, than 
had Great Britain or France, and what lawyer who 
regards the Constitution as the full grant of all the 
powers of the Federal Government can hold other- 
wise ? " 

III. The Constitution of the Confederate States 
was not the overthrow of a representative republic. 
It was the re-enactment of the Constitution of the 
United States with the Southern interpretation of 
that instrument. It was modeled on that of the 
United States ajid followed it with rigid literalness, 
except on the subject of African slavery. It sought 
to protect the rights of the States and the rights of 
the people and the rights of property against usurpa- 
tion or oppression. The most prejudiced critic will 
be unable to find clause or word hostile to any 
Northern interest. 

The New York Herald, on the 16th of March, 
1861, published the Constitution of the Confederate 
States in full, and on the 19th of March recommended 
the adoption by the United States of "this ultimatum 
of the seceded States." It said : " The new Consti- 
tution is the Constitution of the United States witli 
various modifications and some very important and 
most desirable improvements. We are free to say 
that the invaluable reforms enumerated should be 
adopted by the United States, with or without a re- 



148 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

union of the seceded States, and as soon as possible. 
But why not accept them with the propositions of 
the Confederate States on slavery as a basis of 
reunion ? " 

IV. The Confederacy had the enthusiastic assent 
of the people of the Southern States. The votes in 
behalf of secession and of the adoption of the Con- 
stitution were deliberate and voluntary. The war 
was sustained with equal zeal and unanimity. No 
people ever endured more cheerfully such privations 
and sacrifices. Since the war, President Davis has 
been censured for not making peace. It has been 
said that he, as President and Commander-in-chief, 
knew the exhaustion of our resources, the rapidly- 
diminishing Army, the inability to sustain the terri- 
bly unequal contest. Without entering upon that 
question it may be incontestably said that it is very 
doubtful whether the States would have sanctioned 
peace without independence ; it is almost certain the 
Army would not. 

V. It is often absurdly alleged that the South 
premeditated secession and made large military 

1, preparations for it. The accusation is ridiculous. 
Provision for war was an impossibility. In 1860, 
war was as unanticipated as it was unwished for. One 
of the first acts of President Davis was to accredit 
Commissioners to visit Washington and use all 
honorable means for obtaining a satisfactory adjust- 



COKRECTION OF MISREPRESENTATION. 149 

merit of all questions of dispute between the two 
Governments. The Confederacy in its infancy had 
neither soldier nor seaman, neither army nor navy, 
neither revenue nor credit. It had not even the 
machinery of a well-organized general Government. 
The South had no facilities for the manufacture of 
guns or any of the munitions of war. What was 
extemporized as the nucleus for defence was pur- 
chased in Baltimore and Northern cities. The South 
fought against most unequal odds. She was con- 
quered by the avoirdupois of preponderant force, by 
a rigidly-enforced blockade, by wearing attrition, by 
a decimation of people, and never by superior valor 
or skill. She combated the public opinion of 
Europe, a powerful and well-organized Government, 
an army reenforced at will, limitless resources of 
means and money, and as much skill and courage as 
ever assembled under a nation's flag or did duty at 
a country's call. 

VI. Northern religious assemblies, newspapers, 
poets and orators indulge in much self-commenda- 
tion because of the abolition of slavery, and claim 
with much self-satisfaction that that event, which 
no one deprecates or regrets, was brought about in 
response to the demands of the Northern conscience. 
No right-thinking person will be disposed to with- 
hold from abolitionists whatever credit is due to 
them for their opinions and propagandism, but it is 



150 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

a severe and naked historical fact that a military 
necessity compelled emancipation. The document 
which " ushered in the great political regeneration of 
the American people," using the language of Mr. 
Lincoln's biographers, was the proclamation of 
President Lincoln, declaring the freedom on 1st of 
January, 1863, "of all persons held as slaves within 
any State then in rebellion against the United 
States." Mr. Lincoln's excuse for, or vindication of, 
this exercise of power he gives himself " As com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and the navy in the 
time of war, I suppose I have the right to take any 
measure which may best subdue the enemy. . 
I view the matter as a practical war measure, to be 
decided on according to the advantages or disadvan- 
tages it may offer to the suppression of the rebel- 
lion." The House of Representatives, subsequently, 
by a vote of 78 to 52, adopted a resolution that the 
policy of emancipation as indicated in the proclama- 
tion of the President, " was well- chosen as a war 
measure." 

VII. President Davis possessed a sound judgment, 
tenacity of will, tried integrity and large experience 
in that greatest of practical arts — government ; but 
the Confederacy furnished little scope for sagacious 
statesmanship. The difldculties were constant and 
incalculable, but there was never occasion, for diplo- 
macy or legislative wisdom. Financial success was 



CORRECTION OF MISREPRESENTATION. 151 

beyond human attainment. From the beginning to 
the sudden collapse of the Confederacy, the question 
was one of arms, of patriotism, of patient endur- 
ance. The civil was necessarily subordinated to the 
military. How to raise troops, how arm, clothe, 
subsist, transport, officer them, how make and keep 
effective the War Department, the Commissary and 
Quartermaster Bureaux : these were the questions 
to be grappled with and they proved to be unman- 
ageable. 



OPINIONS AND IMPRESSIONS. 

BY HON. A, H. GARI^AND, 
Ex-Attomey-General of the United States. 

MY acquaintance with Mr. Davis began on the 
20th day of May, 1861, the day on which Ar- 
kansas was admitted a member of the Southern 
Confederacy. I was one of the five members from 
Arkansas to the Provisional Congress of the Confed- 
eracy, then in session at Montgomery, Ala., and we 
called upon him as President on that day, and dined 
with him at his private residence. 

He was as pleasant and affable, I think, as ever 
man was, and discussed matters freely and with deep 
concern, showing he had weighed well the great 
undertaking then upon him, and while he was cheer- 
ful and hopeful, he was thoughtful. He seemed 
especially gratified that Arkansas had joined the 
Confederacy, and his welcome to her delegation was 
cordiality itself. 

The particular question then in hand and exciting 
some feeling was, whether the seat of government 
should be transferred to Richmond, Va. The mem- 
bers of Congress were, by no means, united on this. 
Mr. Davis favored the change, and quietly and with- 
out exhibiting any feeling on the subject gave his 

reasons for it. 
152 



OPINIONS AND IMPRESSIONS. 153 

In a few days the vote was taken and the change 
was made. The session at Montgomery soon closed, 
and Congress and the President separated, amid 
exciting scenes of preparation for the gigantic work 
before them, to meet again the following July in 
Richmond. 

At Richmond, on Sunday, the day of the first bat- 
tle of Manassas — in my memory yet, as the hottest, 
closest and most sultry day I ever saw — with two or 
three others, I called upon Mr. Davis and spent some 
little time with him. While he did not say so, yet 
he intimated important events were transpiring 
north of the capital, and in canvassing the situation 
with great self-possession, he did not conceal his 
anxiety; and sure enough, before that night the 
first step that led on almost to the change of front 
of the world had been taken. 

From this time forward being, after the termina- 
tion of the Provisional Congress, a member of the 
House of Representatives of the permanent Congress 
for nearly two terms, and a Senator just before and 
at the close of the war, I had almost daily inter- 
course with Mr. Davis, meeting him often privately, 
and frequently as one of a committee to discuss 
public measures and affairs. 

In one of those interviews he preserved that ex- 
cellence of manner and address for which he was so 
deservedly noted. With the energy of his con vie- 



154 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

tions, he would maintain his views, but not petu- 
lantly or dictatoriallj, and conceded the utmost lati- 
tude of opinion and expression to all. 

Mr. Davis has often been called obstinate. I 
think this is an exaggeration. That he was a man 
of deep and strong convictions, and feared not to 
express them there can be no question : that he was 
a man of great poiver of purpose is equally true, and 
I know of no one who is much account who has not 
a large share of that ; and filling the positions Mr. 
Davis did, to have been without it, one would have 
been most singularly out of place. Obstinacy im- 
plies an unyielding to reason, to argument : it is an 
accompaniment of ignorance. But Mr. Davis was, 
by no means, an ignorant man ; quite the contrary, 
he was learned and accomplished, and his was an 
intelligent decision of character. He had been, and 
was when I knew him, a close, industrious student, 
and he possessed vast, knowledge, which he could 
impart in the most felicitous manner, either by word 
or by writing. 

His political struggles in Mississippi had been 
fierce and straining to the utmost. That was the 
order of the day then and there. In that State, 
where lived probably more gifted popular orators 
than in any other State, according to population, he 
had many a hard-fought field, and there he won his 
laurels among the foremost. 



OPINIONS AND IMPRESSIONS.' 'l55 

Probably no contest in any country was more in- 
tensely interesting and more absorbing than was his 
with Governor Foote for the Governorship of Missis- 
sippi in 1851, and probably never was a political 
conflict waged, on both sides, with more stubborn 
determination. 

The excitement went away out of and beyond the 
territory of Mississippi. Coming up the Mississippi 
river that fall just after the election, but before its 
result was generally known, on the old "Fannie 
Smith," one of the finest crafts that ever walked the 
waters, I heard nothing but, " What's tlie neius from 
the Mississirppi election ? " till I reached Louisville, 
Ky. At every landing, from Memphis to Louisville, 
old men and old women, young men and young 
women, and boys and girls, would crowd to and upon 
the boat as she landed, until she would almost turn 
over, crying out at the top of their voices, " Whos 
elected Governor of Mississippi ? " 

Passing through such struggles, he would have 
been something more than man if their impress had 
not been left upon him. Doubtless they did con- 
tribute to make firm and solid a nature already much 
self-possessed and self-reliant. 

I have spoken of him as an educated and accom- 
plished man, and in this connection I have often 
thought his State papers and his communications to 
Congress were models of English composition. In 



156 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

my opinion, in this respect they have not been ex- 
celled. 

Being a positive and direct man, he always im- 
pressed me that he was brave and courageous, and 
true to the principles he advocated. The service he 
did the Republic, and the glory he won before the 
birth of the Confederacy, entitle him to this praise. 
And I doubt not there was not an hour during the 
war between the States he would not have given up 
his life as readily as he would have put a cent in a 
charity box, if by so doing he believed he could have 
secured the independence of the Confederacy. 

His care and solicitude for the Confederate soldiers 
was manifest upon every occasion, and it was the 
genuine exhibition of a father's love for his children. 

It has been said often, that with some one else at 
the head of the Confederacy the result would have 
been different. This I do not subscribe to. Mr. 
Davis managed her affairs as well, in my judgment, 
as they could have been, and he did all for the 
people who trusted him that could have been done ; 
and he came just as near succeeding as any other 
one would who might have been in his place. 

The debate as to his true position in history will 
be long — may be endless. Certain it is, the time is 
not yet when this verdict can be made up and 
entered. Plutarch, in his essaj's, speaks of one 
Antiphanes, who told it, that in a certain city the 



OPINIONS AND IMPRESSIONS. I57 

cold was SO intense that words were congealed as 
soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed 
and became audible, so that words spoken in winter 
were articulated next summer. The fitting opinions 
and impressions formed of Mr. Davis may as yet be 
congealed, and be not heard, but in the softening 
influence of the future — when summer comes — they 
too may be thawed and made audible, and he will 
be ranked among the first who have figured in 
history. 



w 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 

BY J. RANDOI.PH TUCKER. 

E come on the invitation of the Governor of 



the Commonwealth to join with millions in 
the South, and in union with those who at- 
tend upon the obsequies at New Orleans to do re- 
verence to the splendid name and fame of Jefferson 
Davis, the soldier, the statesman and the Christian 
patriot. We come to bury Davis — and to praise 
him. 

We will not revive the thoughts, the motives or 
the actions of a past generation, but with warm and 
honest hearts we avow, that though our Confederacy 
be buried forever, we still love and revere the truth 
and Integrity, the constancy and fortitude, the honor 
and the virtues, the genius and the patriotism of the 
heroes who led and filled our armies ; and of the 
executive chieftain whose master hand directed our 
destiny in that momentous crisis. 

Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808. I 

do not doubt that his name gave direction to his 

opinions by throwing his mind under the fascinating 

influence of Thomas Jefferson, whose writings have 

exerted so large a power over the American people. 

Mr. Jefferson in his political philosophy had 
158 



MExMOKIAL ADDRESS. 159 

evolved two ultimate principles. The first, the self- 
determinant power of the man which led him to his 
sentiment for the universal freedom of all men under 
proper conditions. The second, the self-determinant 
power of the State in the Federal Union, as essential 
to the freedom of its people from the despotism of 
centralism. 

Kentucky gave birth to two men in the early part 
of the century, Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln. 
Both of these embodied the ultimate principles just 
mentioned of Mr. Jefferson, but not in like propor- 
tions. Mr. Lincoln held to unconditional emancipa- 
tion as far as political power reached, and did not 
hold the limit on power imposed by the second prin- 
ciple to the same extent or with the same tenacity 
with which it was held by Mr. Jefferson. On the 
other hand, Mr. Davis, while no doubt holding to 
the ultimate freedom of all men, recognized the con- 
ditions which environed the question, making eman- 
cipation practically difficult, and gave more force to 
them as postponing the result ; and held with uncon- 
ditional tenacity to the second principle as essential 
to the autonomy of the States of the South, and to 
the political liberty of their people. 

Young Davis went to West Point as a cadet, as 
the son of his mother Mississippi, who sent him there 
to be educated for her, upon the basis of her contri- 
bution through taxation to the expenses necessary 



160 REMINISCEN€ES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

for the support of the Military Academy. He en- 
listed in the army, and distinguished himself as a 
gallant officer in the Black Hawk war. 

As a young lieutenant, Davis won the love of the 
daughter of General Zachary Taylor, afterwards 
president of the United States. "With the father's 
consent he married her, and in three months he bur- 
ied this beautiful object of his early love. The story 
of his grief and devotion to her memory, as told to 
me, shows how tender and true was this strong, brave 
man — to become in later years, as we have seen, a 
man of destiny. 

He left the army, and devoting himself to planta- 
tion life — that realm for thoughtful speculation and 
philosophical study with a large class of southern 
men, who have filled a conspicuous place in the his- 
tory of the country — became a close student of con- 
stitutional history and government. 

He was soon elected to the House of Representa- 
tives, but when the Mexican war broke out in 184G, 
he raised a regiment of Mississippi riflemen, took a 
distinguished part in the siege of Monterey, and 
with his regiment decided the fate of the day on 
the victorious field of Buena Vista, Feb. 22d and 
23d, 1847. 

Mississippi then sent Colonel Davis to the Senate 
of the U. S., where during the celebrated debates on 
the compromise measures of 1850 he took a promi- 



MEMORIAL ADDEESS. 161 

hent place. It was at that time 1 first saw him, 
when he rose with brave and manly face to challenge 
to discussion the celebrated Henry Clay then as now, 
one of the most striking figures in all American his- 
tory. 

Mr. Davis was beaten by Henry S. Foote for Gov- 
ernor in 1851, and remained thereafter in private life 
until called to the War Department by President 
Pierce in March, 1853. Here he displayed great ca- 
pacity for organization, and in the administration of 
the details of the War office, of which even his ene- 
mies do not scruple to testify. 

In 1857 he returned to the Senate, where he re- 
mained until the winter of 1860-61, when Mississippi 
having seceded from the Union, Mr. Davis withdrew 
from the Senate, after delivering a valedictory ad- 
dress which produced a profound impression upon his 
audience, and upon the public at large. 

In February, 1861, he was called to be President 
of the Confederate States of America, and so contin- 
ued to be until the surrender of the Confederate 
armies in April, 1865. In May of that year he was 
captured and was closely confined until 1867 in For- 
tress Monroe, when he was released on Habeas Cor- 
pus on application to the United States Court. 

It is a pleasure to announce that while the conduct 

of that proceeding was directed by the pre-eminent 

counsellor, Charles O'Connor, of New York, the 
11 



162 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

honor of being associated with him was shared in a 
subordinate position by me. After his release, the 
first use of his freedom manifests the tenderness of 
the father's heart ; he and Mrs. Davis went to visit 
and to dress the grave of the young son they had 
lost during the war. 

He went back to his home. He was never tried 
— he was never re-arrested. He asked not for a re- 
moval of his political disabilities. They were never 
removed. 

During the years which have passed since his re- 
lease, Mr. Davis has written a very able and valuable 
history of the Confederate States, in which there is 
a disquisition on the constitutional questions involved 
in their secession from the Union. And thus, with- 
drawn from public observation, he has lived at his 
home, until at the age of 81 years, he closed his life 
on the 6th inst., in New Orleans. 

After this epitome of his life the question presses 
for answer, why do we join in this tribute to his 
memory ? 

Several answers may be given. 

First, he was in himself worthy of our admiration 
and esteem. He had a splendid intellect, keen and 
critical in insight, and profound and diligent in re- 
search. Bold in conception, he was logical in pro- 
cess. A philosophical thinker on the highest prob- 
lems of Political Science, he had in a high degree 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 163 

the practical sense for the administration of public 
affairs. 

In the Senate, standing erect in mind and person, 
as a champion of the truth, he flung down the gage 
of battle in the arena of debate with a courage as 
heroic as his courtesy was knightly. His will was 
guided by convictions — the deepest convictions. He 
had, it is true, his prejudices and his preferences. 
His judgment, despite these, was sound and reliable, 
though not infallible. His soul was the seat of 
honor and chivalry. He was true to friends, and 
firm and resolute to foes. His affections were ardent 
his impulses noble, his motives pure, and his faith in 
God fixed, humble and sincere. 

2. Again, we owe him reverence, for Davis was 
the heroic friend of the South Land. He did not 
seek her archonship, it sought him. He heard her 
clarion call and he obeyed it with a religious purpose 
to save her liberty in the new Confederacy. Among 
all her men, he seemed to have the combination of 
qualities which best fitted him for the service. 

He had experience in statesmanship, practical 
knowledge of affairs, eloquence, logic and personal 
magnetism; and a resolution which could not be 
turned aside, and a will which would not yield to 
fear, and which could not be seduced by policy or 
personal interest. Take him as civilian and soldier, 
as orator and logician, as statesman and popular 



164 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

leader, as a judicious counsellor and the possessor of 
an aggressive and unbending will ; I think it may 
be said that none of his contemporaries equaled him 
in the entireness of his manhood, though many ex- 
celled him in some one of his wonderful gifts. If he 
failed, who could have succeeded ? If he made mis- 
takes, which one of his contemporaries would have 
made less in number or less in degree ? This much 
is undoubtedly true, Jefferson Davis heroically main- 
tained the principles for which the South contended, 
with an eye that never quailed, with a cheek that 
never blanched, a step that never faltered, a courage 
that never flinched, a fortitude that never failed, a 
fidelity that even captivity could not repress, and 
with a constancy even unto death I For four years 
without commerce or national recognition; with a 
government new and imperfectly organized ; with 
army and navy to be raised ; with Department of 
War and bureaux of war supplies to be improvised ; 
with scarcely one-half the numbers of its foe and less 
than half the resources, the Confederacy under his 
leadership, and with the genius of its military and 
naval heroes, upheld a conflict which was the mira- 
cle of the age in which it occurred, and will be the 
romance of the future historian. It is true the Con- 
federacy went down below the horizon of history 
forever, and its name as a nation is effaced from the 
page of human annals for all time to come ; yet the 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 165 

cheeks of our children will not blush for its fate, but 
will flush with pride and admiration, as they hear 
the tale of the patience, constancy and fortitude, the 
adventurous daring, and heroism, the genius of 
leadership, and the victories of their noble fathers. 

Our Confederacy sank in sorrow, but not in shame. 
Dark and gloomy clouds gathered in heavy folds 
around its setting, but they did not — they could not 
blacken it ! It lit them into effulgence with its own 
transcendent glory. 

3. But again, Jefferson Davis desers^es our rever- 
ence because he has stood for a quarter of a century 
in our place. He endured a cruel capti\'ity for two 
years, and for the residue of that time has been the 
vicarious victim of obloquy and reproach due to us 
all, and heaped upon him alone by the press and 
people of the Xorth. EQs fortitude and devotion to 
truth never failed. He endured not in silence, but 
with a protest which history has recorded, and will 
preserve as an emphatic vindication of the Confed- 
eracy which had perished, from malign aspersions on 
the motives of its friends, on the origin and causes 
of its formation and on the purposes of justice and 
liberty, which inspired those who died in its defence, 
or who survived to illustrate its principles in doing 
the duties, public and private, which Grod in his 
providence assigned them to perform. He died a 
citizen of Mississippi and of the United States, and 



166 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

under disability to hold office under the government 
of the United States. He desired no place; why 
should he ? He had filled his place in the temple of 
fame and in the domain of history. In personal 
dignity, and in the peace of God, he lived and died. 
What artificial disability could taint his real nature ? 
Why seek to remove it? He had made an heroic 
and honest efibrt to give freedom and independence 
to the South and had failed. God's will be done ! 
He chose the sacred retirement of home, its charms 
of family and friends, of calm and [philosophical re- 
flection and study, and waited with firm reliance on 
divine goodness for the last summons, which comes 
to him who has humbly but bravely, conscientiously, 
and with undaunted courage and patience, done his 
duty, as he saw it, to truth, to his country and to 
God! 

" Whether on cross uplifted high, 
Or Jn the battle's van ; 
The fittest place for man to die, 
Is where he dies for man ! " 

Virginia ! Rockbridge ! Lexington ! ever keeping 
guard over the holy dust of Lee and Jackson, turn 
aside to-day with millions of your countrymen; 
with mournful reverence and tender hearts to twine 
a wreath of martial glory and weave a chaplet of 
civic fame, to rest upon the tomb of Jefferson 
Davis ! In a peculiar sense the fate of our Confed- 



EULOGY ON JEFFERSON DAVIS. 167 

eracy is recalled to-day. On its grave — finally 
closed this hour — will be inscribed in imperishable 
characters the immortal name of the martial civilian 
who was its first, its only President. We plant 
flowers about it and water them with our tears, not 
hoping for, or as emblems of its anticipated resur- 
rection, but to embalm it in our fragrant memories 
and in our most precious aJBfections. And then, 
turning from the ashes of our dead past to the ac- 
tive duty dictated by the example and counsels of 
our departed leaders, Albert Sidney Johnston, Stone- 
wall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, 
we will labor with a fidelity wrought by the stem 
but noble discipline of our past experience, for the 
maintenance of the constitutional liberty, they im- 
perilled their lives to save, and for the promotion of 
the true prosperity, progress and glory of our com- 
mon country. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

BY HON. G. G. VEST, 
United States Senator from MissourL 

WITH the multitude, "success is the criterion 
of merit." When the Confederate Armies 
surrendered their battle flags, they surren- 
dered also the history of their heroic struggle 
against the overwhelming numbers hurled upon 
them. It is not meant by this that the record of 
battles, campaigns and sieges became the property 
of the victors, but only that the outside world can 
never know the motives of the vanquished, their 
devotion to what they believed to be the right, 
their heroism during the long, dark years of that 
bloody struggle, when the prejudices of the civil- 
ized world were arrayed against their cause, and 
the mercenaries of every land swelled the armies 
of their adversary. The cause of the Confederate 
States was under the ban of Christendom, because 
identified with African slavery. It was useless 
then, and it is useless now, to attempt an expla- 
nation to foreigners, the masses of whom are un- 
acquainted with our institutions and their history, 

and whose educated men even are imperfectly in- 
168 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 169 

formed as to the autonomy of our Government, of 
the fundamental and radical difference of Constitu- 
tional construction which began with the adoption 
of the Constitution in 1789, and culminated in 
Civil War. The world is too busy for such discus- 
sion, and results alone are regarded. 

No one, amongst public men, knew so well the 
odds in favor of the United States and against the 
Confederacy, in the event of war, as did Jefferson 
Davis. He was an educated soldier, and had dis- 
tinguished himself upon the battle-field and as Sec- 
retary of War. He was a statesman, earnest, la- 
borious and unwearying in tlie examination of 
public questions and the resources of every section. 
His service in the Senate and Cabinet, and the at- 
trition of debate with the ablest minds, gave him 
accurate information of the military strength of 
both North and South. His intellect was acute, 
well-trained and untiring. He was cool, deliberate, 
without the passion that clouds reason, and cau- 
tious in all his conclusions. The fierce excitement 
aroused by sectional controversy did not hurry him 
into secession ; but he went with his people, believ- 
ing they were right, and prepared for any fate. 

Mr. Davis believed that the North had resolved 
upon the invasion and destruction of Constitutional 
guarantees, upon which rested the property rights, 
social life, and even the autonomy of the Southern 



170 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFJ'ERSON DAVIS. 

States. In his deliberate judgment the election of 
Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency upon the sectional 
basis of opposition to slave property, meant that the 
South must submit to political degradation and dis- 
honor, or sever their connection with the Union, 
and face the result. 

He knew that the South was not alone responsi- 
ble for African slavery, but that the North had 
clung to it until slavery had ceased to be profitable. 
He knew that in the formation of the Constitution 
the New England States had agreed to the extension 
of the slave trade, in order to secure the navigation 
laws which they considered vitally important to 
their commerce. 

With this knowledge he resented with all the 
vehemence of a strong and manly nature the 
hypocritical pretence that "slavery was a cove- 
nant with death, — a league with hell," and that 
the Northern conscience could not longer tolerate 
its existence. 

His intelligence discerned clearly the true intent, 
partially concealed, in the avowal that slavery would 
not be attacked in the States, but could not be 
extended to other territory. He had been taught 
by history that sentimental and sectional fanaticism 
would never stop until all its objects were accom- 
plished, and he understood the full force of the fren- 
zied appeal to the Northern people, "that slavery 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 171 

must be surrounded by a cordon of fire until, like a 
viper, it stung itself to death." 

Mr. Davis knew, as did every reflecting man not 
an unreasoning optimist, that the election of Lin- 
coln meant to the South degradation or war. 
The idle talk of fighting in the Union, and under 
the flag, did not touch his knowledge that the real 
Union had disappeared with the supremacy of a 
party based upon the idea of destroying the property 
rights of the people in fifteen States. 

With these opinions and convictions Jefferson 
Davis gave himself unreservedly, heart, soul and 
brain, to the cause of his people. 

It was his ardent wish to serve in the field, for he 
was by instinct and training a soldier, but he was 
called to the Presidency of the infant republic, and, 
with full knowledge of the terrible task, accepted it 
with solemn and earnest purpose. 

To those who have no knowledge of the inner life 
of the Confederate Government, it is difficult to 
convey even an inadequate idea of the difficulties 
which confronted the President of the Confederate 
States. 

The Southern people, brave and devoted, were im- 
petuous, untrained, and unprepared for war. Their 
leaders in political life were men of great, but irregu- 
lar talents, ambitious, fierce and intractable. Their 
ideas of war were crude and impracticable. In the 



172 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

matter of supplies, so absolutely necessary to mili- 
tary success, they had been taught by De-Bow's 
Review that " Cotton was king," and that a cotton 
famine in Europe w^ould force England and the great 
Continental powers to interfere in behalf of the Con- 
federate States. As this dream vanished, and all the 
horrors of war came nearer to the homes and hearts 
of the Southern people, as their finances became 
disordered, their supplies exhausted, and the ranks 
of their armies thinned by disease and death, dema- 
gogues and traitors, jealous rivals, and half-hearted 
friends turned against the head of the government, 
and charged the mass of accumulating misfortune 
to his evil and malign influence. He was accused of 
prejudice, nepotism, kingly ambition, and as the 
sound of hostile guns came nearer and nearer to the 
beleaguered capital of the Confederacy, the louder 
swelled the clamor of this discordant and malignant 
disaffection. 

CoUf^cted and calm, unmoved by misfortune, un- 
vexed by accusation, Jefferson Davis discharged the 
trust i-eposed in him by the Southern people, with 
the heroic and sublime devotion of a martyr. 

That he made many mistakes is but to admit that 
he was mortal. That his confidence was often 
abused, and the conclusions he reached erroneous, no 
one will deny who knows the truth ; but amidst 
unparalleled difficulty and danger, surrounded by 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 173 

perils within and without, the loyalty of Jefferson 
Davis to the Southern cause was never doubted by 
even his most unrelenting foes. 

When the end came, and all the vials of the vic- 
tor's wrath were emptied upon his devoted head, 
insulted and outraged, manacled in a felon cell, and 
watched by night and day, as if a wild beast, his 
splendid courage and unshrinking heroism brought 
the tears to even manhood's eyes throughout the 
world, and shamed the coward pack that hounded 
him. 

At last there came an hour in which he met his 
accusers face to face in a Court of Justice and dared 
them to the worst. Serene and inflexible, he stood 
before the tribunal an incarnation of constancy and 
fortitude. In his person, resolute and uncomplaining, 
submissive to the will of God, but cringing not to 
mortal man, the South had its noblest type of man- 
hood. He was its true representative, and every 
insult, every sorrow, every pang endured by him 
thrilled and touched every Southern heart. 

Amidst the flowers of the South, where the moan- 
ing gulf sobs its requiem for the glorious dead, 
Jefferson Davis passed the closing years of a life 
which will cause for centuries both the severest 
criticism and the most touching devotion. The 
events in his career are too recent, the colors now 
too vivid, for the purpose of impartial judgment. 



174 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

The time will come when all will see in the 
Southern leader that one great quality, which in all 
climes and ages has commanded the admiration of 
mankind, — constant, unyielding, uncompromising ad- 
herence to what he believed a just cause. 

To the Southern people there will be no change in 
love and reverence for one who never faltered in his 
love for them. 

Through all the ages, until constancy, courage and 
honest purpose become valueless among men, the 
flowers will be ht^ap d by loving hands upon his 
grave. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 

BY REV. MOSES HOGS, D.D. 

SOMEWHAT wearied, as I am, with the number 
of special services which have devolved on me 
of late, it was my desire and effort to be relieved 
of the one now assigned to me. But the constraint 
laid on me to perform it was one I could not proper- 
ly resist. I have probably been called to undertake 
this office because I am one of the few pastors in this 
city who resided here during the Civil War, and be- 
cause circumstances brought me into personal asso- 
ciation with the President of the conquered Confed- 
eracy. I heard his first address to the Richmond 
people from the balcony of Spotswood Hotel, 
after the removal of the capital from Montgomery. 
I stood beneath the ominous clouds, in the dismal 
rain of that memorable day, the 22d of February, 
1862, when, from the platform erected near the 
Washington monument in the Capitol Square, after 
prayer by Bishop Johns, he delivered his inaugural 
address, in clear but gravely modulated tones. I 
have ridden with him on horseback along the lines 
of fortification which guarded the city. I have had 
experiences of his courtesy in his house and in his 
office. I was with him in Danville after the evacu- 

176 



176 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ation, until the surrender at Appomattox Court- 
house ; and while I never aspired to intimacy with 
him, my opportunities were such as enabled me to 
learn the personal traits which characterized him as 
a man, as well as the official and public acts which 
marked his administration and which now form a 
part of the history of the country. 

And now permit me to say a word with regard to 
the kind of service which I deem appropriate to the 
hour and to the place where we meet. 

This is a jnemorial service, and not an occasion for 
the discussion of topics which would be appropriate 
elsewhere and at another time. 

Every congregation assembled in our churches in 
these Southern States to-day forms a part of the vast 
multitude which unites in mind and heart with the 
solemn assembly in New Orleans, where, in the 
presence of the dead, the funeral services are in pro- 
gress at this hour. There, all that is most tender 
and most impressive centres, and it becomes all who 
compose those outlying congregations to feel and act 
in sympathy with what is now passing in the sad 
but queenly city which guards the gates of the Mis- 
sissippi, in the church draped in sable, and where 
the bereaved sit beside the pall with hearts filled 
with a sorrow which no outward emblems of mourn- 
ing can express. 

If we place ourselves in sympathy with the emo- 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 177 

tions which concentre there, and which radiate to 
the wide circumference of the most distant congre- 
gations uniting in these obsequies, then how evident 
it is that political harangues and discussions calcu- 
lated to excite sectional animosities are utterly 
inappropriate to the hour. It is not the office of 
the minister of religion to deal controversially with 
the irritating subjects which awaken party strife. 
It is his duty and privilege to soften asperities, to 
reconcile antagonistic elements, to plead for mutual 
forbearance, to urge such devotion to the common 
weal as to bring all the people. North, South, East 
and West, into harmonious relations with each 
other, so as to combine all the resources of the entire 
country into unity of effort for the welfare of the 
whole. I trust this will be the tone and spirit of 
all the addresses made in the churches to-day 
throughout the South ; and may I not hope that 
as there are no geographical boundaries to the quali- 
ties which constitute noble manhood, such as courage, 
generosity, fortitude, and personal honor, there will 
be many in the Northern arid Western States who 
will be in sympathy with the eulogies which will 
be pronounced to-day by the speakers who hold up 
to view those characteristics of their dead chieftain 
which have always commanded the admiration of 
right-minded and right-hearted men in all lands and 

in all centuries. 
12 



178 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

The day is coming when the question will not 
relate so much to the color of the uniform, blue or 
gray, as to the character of the men who wore it; 
when the question will be, who were most loyal to 
what they believed to be duty, who were most 
dauntless in danger, who most sublime in self-sacri- 
fice, who illustrated most splendidly the ideal of the 
patriot soldier? 

Before the commencement of the strife w:hich 
ended in the dismemberment of the Union, all 
men familiar with the life of Mr. Davis, whether 
as a cadet at West Point, as a soldier in 
the Mexican war, as the Governor of his adopted 
fL State, or as a member of the Senate of the 

United States, agree in regarding him as entitled 
to the reputation he won as a gallant officer and a 
patriotic statesman. After the organization of the 
Southern Confederacy, whatever conflicting views 
men may entertain with regard to the righteousness 
of the part he took in its formation, or as to the 
wisdom of his course as its Chief Magistrate, all 
alike admit the sincerity and the courage of his 
convictions, and the indomitable resolution with 
which he carried out his plans, with a decision that 
nothing could shake, and with a devotion that 
sought nothing for self, but everything for the 
success of the cause to which he had consecrated 
his life. 



\ 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 179 

This leads to the inquiry as to the qualities and 
attributes which constitute the patriot statesman, 
the statesman needed for all time, but more espe- 
cially for our own day and country. The opinion 
has been recently expressed by men whose words 
have great weight, that our legislative bodies should 
be composed for the most part of practical business 
men, thoroughly acquainted with the trade, the 
commerce, and the financial interests of the coun- 
try. With a single qualification, no one will con- 
trovert the truth of that statement, but taken alone, 
it is an imperfect enunciation of the requirements 
of legislation. Associated with men, no matter how 
conversant with the commercial interests of the 
country, we need legislators who are profound 
students of history, philosophy and ethics ; men who 
have had time and opportunities for thought and 
for the thorough investigation of the principles of 
government. I heard Lord Palmerston say in the 
speech he delivered at his inauguration as Lord 
Rector of the University of Glasgow that the differ- 
ence between the statesmen of Great Britain and 
France was owing to the fact that the latter had 
been trained only in the exact sciences, while the 
former had been drilled in metaphysics and moral 
philosophy ; and the result was, that while French 
legislative assemblies had been filled with brilliant 
politicians, the British Parliament had been graced 



180 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

and dignified by men of the stamp of Burke and 
Chatham and Fox and Peel and Canning. 

Who were the men who framed the government 
under which we live? Who wrote the masterly 
state papers which excited the wonder and admira- 
tion of the best thinkers of the old world ? Who 
wrote the Declaration of Independence and the 
Constitution, which brought into union the inde- 
pendent colonial sovereignties ? Who built up our 
system of Jurisprudence, combining the merits of 
Roman civil law and English common law? All 
of them students ; men who, under the shade of their 
ancestral trees, in the retirement of their Southern 
country homes, had spent their lives in profound 
researches into the principles upon which just gov- 
ernment is founded, and then were capable of 
elaborating and bringing into successful operation 
the wisest form of government the world ever knew. 
Never were statesmen of this type so much needed 
in our national councils as now. 

Then I add, the statesman required for the times 
is one who has the courage and the ability to lead 
public opinion in ways that are right, instead of 
waiting to ascertain the popular drift, no matter 
how base, that he may servilely follow it. Unlike 
the popularity hunter, who never asks what is just, 
but what is politic, and then trims his sails so as to 
catch every breeze of public favor, the upright 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 181 

statesman, with the deep conviction that nothing 
that is morally wrong can be politically right, steers 
directly for the port of duty along a line in which no 
deflection can be traced, and holds his course in the 
very teeth of the gale. While the demagogue dares 
attempt nothing, no matter how noble, which might 
endanger his popularity, the patriot statesman, 
when assailed by obloquy, is not greatly troubled 
thereby, but calmly waits for the verdict of time, 
the great vindicator. 

When the path of duty becomes the path of 
danger, the upright statesman is not intimidated, 
but remains firm as the rock in mid-ocean, against 
which the invading waves beat only to be shivered 
into spray. While the tricky demagogue spends 
all his energies in directing the tactics of a party, 
the broad-minded statesman aspires to build up a 
noble commonwealth, and rises above all that is 
selfish and mean, because the ends he aims at are 
those of country, God and truth. Men of great 
gifts often fail in public life because they lack the 
moral basis on which character alone can stand. 
After all, integrity is one of the strongest of living 
forces ; and what the people seek when their rights 
are imperilled is not so much for men of brilliant 
talents as for leaders whose chief characteristics are 
untarnished honor, incorruptible honesty, and the 
courage to do right at any hazard. 



182 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

It is admitted that even such men sometimes fail 
to secure the triumph of the cause for which they 
toil and make every sacrifice ; but the very failures 
of such men are nobler than the success of the unprin- 
cipled intriguer. Reproach, persecution, misrepre- 
sentation and poverty have often been the fate of those 
who have suffered the loss of all for the right and 
true ; but they are not dishonored because the igno- 
ble do not appreciate their character, aims and efforts. 

" Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes ; they were souls that stood alone ; 
While the men they agonized for, hurled the contumelious stone." 

Our admiration is more due to him who pursues 
the course he thinks right, in spite of disaster, than 
to one who succeeds by methods which reason and 
conscience condemn. Defeat is the discipline which 
often trains the heroic soul to its noblest develop- 
ment. And when the conviction comes that he has 
struggled in vain, and must now yield to the inevi- 
table, then he may, without shame, lay down his 
armor in the assurance that others will rise up and 
put it on, and in God's good time vindicate the 
principles which must ultimately triumph. 

Another of the lessons we learn from the eventful 
life just terminated is the emptiness and vanity of 
earthly glory, if it be the only prize for which the 
soul has contended. " As for man, his days are as 
grass. He cometh forth like a flower ; in the morn- 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 183 

ing it groweth up and nourisheth : in the evening it 
is cut down and withereth. Surely man at his best 
estate is altogether vanity." Wealth, honor, power, 
military renown, popularity, the constituent elements 
of what men call glory, how evanescent they are, 
and how unsatisfactory while they continue ! What 
is earthly glory ? It is the favor of the fickle mul- 
titude, the transient homage of the hour, the ap- 
plause of the populace, dying away with the breath 
that fills the air with its empty clamor. Oftentimes 
its most impressive emblem is the bloody banner 
whose tattered folds bear mournful evidence of the 
price at which victory is won. It is the mouldering 
hatchment which hangs above the tomb of the dead 
warrior. ' It is the posthumous renown which stirs 
not one sweet emotion in the heart which lies still 
and chill in the coffin, and whose music never pene- 
trates the dull cold ear of death. What is earthly 
glory ? Listen ; " All flesh is as grass, and all the 
glory of man as the flower of the grass ; the grass 
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away ; " 
" the wind passeth over it and it is gone." 

We are told that when Massillon pronounced one 
of those wonderful discourses which placed him in 
the first rank of pulpit orators he found himself in 
a church surrounded by the trappings and pageants 
of a royal funeral. The church was not only hung 
with black drapery, but the light of day was ex- 



1 84 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEKSON DAVIS. 

eluded, and only a few dim tapers burned on the 
altar. The beauty and chivalry of the land were 
spread out before him. The members of the royal 
family sat beneath him, clothed in the habiliments 
of mourning. There was silence — a breathless sus- 
pense. No sound broke the awful stillness. Mas- 
sillon arose. His hands were folded on his bosom ; 
his eyes were lifted to heaven ; utterance seemed 
impossible. Presently his fixed look was unbent, 
his eye roved over the scene where every pomp was 
displayed, where every trophy was exhibited. That 
eye found no resting place amid all this idle parade 
and mocking vanity. At length it settled on the 
bier on which lay dead royalty, covered with a pall. 
A sense of the indescribable nothingness of man at 
his best estate, overcame him. His eyes once more 
closed ; his very breath seemed suspended, until, in 
a scarce audible voice, he startled the deep silence 
with the words : 

"There is Nothing Great but God." 

To-day, my hearers, we are warned that pallid 
death knocks with impartial hand at all doors. He 
enters, with equal freedom, the dwelling of the 
humblest citizen and the mansion of senator, sage 
and chieftain. He lays peasant and president side 
by side, to repose in the silent, all-summoning 
cemetery. 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 185 

" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour ; 

The path of glory leads but to the grave." 

There is nothing great but God ; there is nothing 
solemn but death ; there is nothing momentous but 
judgment. 

Finally, every life which is not made a preparation 
for the eternal future is a comedy, in folly — a tragedy, 
in fact. No matter how splendid its success, the 
life itself and all its possessions are temporary. 
They are like the dissolving views of the panorama. 
Pietro de Medici commanded Michael Angelo to 
fashion a statue of snow. Think of such a man 
spending his time and splendid talents in shaping 
a snow image ! But men who devote all their time 
and talents to temporal things, no matter how 
noble, are modeling and moulding with snow. " He 
builds too low who builds beneath the skies." He 
who expects an enduring portion from anything 
lower than the skies, from anything less stable than 
the heavens, from anything less sufficient than God, 
is doomed to disappointment. The man with a 
mortal body inhabited by an immortal spirit, drift- 
ing to the eternal future without preparation for it, 
is like a richly freighted ship sailing round and 
round on an open sea, bound to no port, and which, 
by and by, goes down in darkness and storm. 



186 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Very different was the course and conduct of the 
man for whom these Southern States are to-day 
paying the last sad rites of respect and affection. 
His Ufe was one of intense occupation. Much of it 
was absorbed with exciting, exacting, earthly du- 
ties ; but in the midst of the pressure and distrac- 
tion to which he was subjected, he remembered 
what time was made for; he remembered the 
endless life that follows this transient life. Very 
beautiful was the testimony of one of the most 
eminent of our Southern statesmen, whose own 
departure from the earth was both a tragedy and 
a triumph, when he said : " I knew Jefferson Davis 
as I knew few men. I have been near him in his 
public duties ; I have seen him by his private fire- 
side ; I have witnessed his humble, Christian devo- 
tions, and I challenge history when I say no people 
were ever led through a stormy struggle by a 
purer patriot, and the trials of public life never 
revealed a purer or more beautiful Christian char- 
acter." 

Oh ! great is the contrast between the hopes and 
prospects of the worldling and those of the humble 
believer. The Duke of Marlborough, in his last 
illness, was carried to an apartment which con- 
tained a picture of one of his great battles. He 
gazed at it awhile, then exclaimed : " Ah ! the 
Duke was something then, but now he is a dying 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 137 

man." The Christian is something whe7i he is 
dying. " His life is hid with Christ in God." 

The closing scenes in the life of Mr. Davis were 
marked by fortitude, by the gentle courtesy which 
never forsook him, and, above all, by sublime 
though simple trust in the all-sufficient Saviour. 
While the outward man was perishing, the inward 
man was renewed day by day. 

As the sculptor chips off the fragments of mar- 
ble out of which he is chiseling a statue, the de- 
crease of the marble only marks the development 
of the statue. 

" The more the marble wastes, 
The more the statue grows." 

So it is with the spirit preparing to take its 
flight from the decaying vesture of the flesh to the 
place where it shall be both clothed and crowned. 

Such are some of the impressive lessons of the 
hour, and if duly heeded, this solemnity, instead 
of being a mere decorous compliance with an exe- 
cutive summons, will be a preparation for the time 
when we shall follow our departed chief, and take 
our places among those who nobly fought and 
grandly triumphed. And then, as now, will we 
sing, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and 
to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, 
is now, and ever shall be, world without end. 
Amen. 



EX PRESIDENT DAVIS IN TEXAS IN 1875. 

BY EX-GOVERNOR F. R. LUBBOCK, 
Who accompanied him through the State. 

FROM the day that Mr. Davis was released 
from prison by the United States Government 
the people of Texas were solicitous to have 
him pay them a visit. They were not moved by 
idle curiosity ; they were anxious to show the love 
and respect they bore him. This kindly feeling 
and respect was fully reciprocated by him. He 
knew them as brave soldiers in the early settlement 
of the republic ; he had witnessed their gallantry in 
the war between the United States and Mexico, and 
later, in the war between the States, and thus 
drawn towards them, he invariably replied to their 
solicitations that as soon as a favorable opportunity 
offered he would visit the people he had ever held 
in such high regard. Finally, in May, 1875, a 
committee of citizens invited him to visit the State 
during the fair at Houston. The following charac- 
teristic reply was received : 

ViCKSBURG, Miss., 5th May, 1875. 
My Dear Sir: I am engaged here on a matter 
of much importance to me, and of no little com- 
188 



EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS IN TEXAS IN 1875. 189 

plexity. If it is possible for me to arrange matters 
so that I can leave, it will give me sincere pleasure 
to meet the good people of Texas, whose kindness 
impresses me with heartfelt gratitude. 

As heretofore, I am compelled to say, Do not 
expect me, but if I do not go, the regret will surely 
be deeper on my part than I can suppose it will be 
on that of others. 

As ever, truly your friend, 

Jefferson Davis. 

Ckjli. F. R. LtTBBOCK. 

He came, however, on a very short notice to the 
committee. He was received at Galveston with 
marked attention and respect, although he arrived 
on Sunday, and attended divine services at the 
Episcopal Church during the day. 

The next morning he proceeded to Houston. The 
notice of his coming was very short, but thousands 
thronged the city to meet their illustrious ex-Presi- 
dent, and never was an arrival marked by stronger 
demonstrations of love and affection from a people. 
His address at the fair grounds captured his hearers, 
old and young. The Association of Veterans of the 
Texas Revolution were present. He spoke to them 
specially, and the old men grew wild at his magnifi- 
cent tribute to them, as he enumerated the wonder- 
ful results they had achieved in giving to the 
country the great State of Texas. 



190 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

A very touching incident occurred while he was 
still in that city. The survivors of the "Davis 
Guards," a company composed entirely of Irishmen, 
desired to call on him in a body. He accorded to 
them an interview. The writer of this, with a few 
other citizens, were present. It was a scene never 
to be forgotten. He made them a short speech, in 
which he referred to their brave conduct in defence 
of their adopted State. That gallant band of warm 
hearts and strong arms each and every one shook 
the hand of their President, as they called him, and 
not a dry eye was there among all those sturdy men 
as they parted from him. This company of forty- 
two volunteers is mentioned in Davis' " Rise and 
Fall of the Confederate States," vol. i., p. 236-2^0, 
as having performed one of the greatest feats during 
the entire war, resulting in saving Texas from inva- 
sion and probable devastation. 

The people appeared loath to part with him, but 
he had to journey on. In passing through the 
country to Austin at every town and station the 
citizens assembled in great numbers, and as he 
would appear upon the platform of the car in 
response to their call, great cheering and hearty 
greetings came from an admiring people. The train 
was behind time in reaching Austin, the capital of 
Texas. It was raining, but men, women and chil- 
dren stood where they had been for hours. They 



EX-PKESIDENT DAVIS IN TEXAS IN 1875. 191 

had improvised torch-lights and waited for the train 
that they might obtain a glimpse of their loved chief. 
He was received by the military and escorted to his 
quarters, where he was met by the Governor of the 
State and others. 

The next day thousands of men, women and chil- 
dren called to shake his hand and tell him how they 
honored and loved him. While at the seat of gov- 
ernment he had every attention that could be shown 
him. His reception in Austin will never be forgot- 
ten, even by the little children that took part in it. 

The people having heard of his coming, his trip 
from Austin to Dallas was like a triumphal proces- 
sion ; never before or since has such an outpouring 
of the people been seen in Texas. 

Arriving at Dallas he was received by the mili- 
tary, the civic associations and an immense con- 
course of people, and his stay while in that city was 
one continued ovation. Men, women and children 
were never satisfied until they had an opportunity 
of seeing their honored guest, and mothers were 
proud to have him lay his hands upon their children 
by way of recognition. 

The people from every part of the State were 
sending committees for him to visit their particular 
section or town. He, however, found it necessary, 
from constant excitement and fatigue, to leave for 
his home in Memphis. On his way thither, at Mar- 



192 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

shall, Texas, he was accorded the same hearty 
welcome and complimentary attentions that had 
been given him during his entire journey through 
the country. 

In fact, he was entertained and honored through- 
out the State more like a victorious general passing 
through the country on a triumphal march after 
winning great battles, than a disfranchised citizen, 
the representative of a lost cause, with no emolu- 
ments or gifts to bestow, nothing being left to him 
but his honor, his great brain, and his true and 
noble heart beating and hoping for the prosperity of 
his people. 

After he had passed the borders of the State he 
was quite exhausted from his extended travel and 
handshaking. This trip made a lasting impression 
upon him. He loved to dwell on his visit to the 
Lone Star State, and the welcome he received while 
there. It was the first really grand ovation that 
had been given him after the surrender of the armies 
of the Confederate States. My heart beats proudly 
when I think my State should be the first to 
publicly honor a man, not for his successes and the 
honors he had to bestow, but for the cause he repre- 
sented and his own personal worth. 

Moreover, during his stay with us ofiers came 
from various localities tendering him a suitable and 
comfortable home if he would but consent to remain 



EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS IN TEXAS IN 1875. 193 

or return to the State. These offers he politely 
declined, as he had previously those of the same 
character from other States. 

Of late years he had many pressing invitations to 
visit Texas again. Circumstances prevented his 
coming. 

Now never again will we have the honor of his 
presence. We have draped our State in mourning 
and tolled our bells, and pronounced thousands of 
funeral orations, and laid away, amid our tears, what 
is mortal of him. His burning words of wisdom, 
his admirable example, his noble deeds, all are im- 
mortal, and will abide with us forever. 
13 



REMINISCENCE. 

BY GENERAI, A. R, LAWTON, 
Bx-Minister to Russia and Quartertnaster-General of the Confederate Army. 

DISABILITIES and hindrances beyond my con- 
trol have prevented me from responding favor- 
ably to a flattering request by the editors and 
publishers to prepare an article for the " Life and 
Reminiscences of Jefferson Davis." But now that I 
am kindly urged to do so, I cannot refrain from the 
attempt, at the last moment, to pay a short tribute 
to one I so honored and loved while living, that I 
cling to the memory of his virtues and his services, 
now that he is in his grave. 

Perhaps I can best serve the cause of truth and 
justice by a plain, unvarnished statement of some 
things which I had exceptionally good opportuni- 
ties to observe, as to the ability, character, conduct 
and temper of Mr. Davis, especially as they affect 
official people and public affairs. 

My first acquaintance with Mr. Davis was in the 
summer of 1854, when he was Secretary of War. 
I was sent to Washington, with the Mayor of Sa- 
vannah, to secure the use of Oglethorpe Barracks 
for the police force of the city. We were warned 
that our mission would probably be fruitless, but it 
194 




JEFFERSON DAVIS AND THE CONFEDERATE GENERALS. 



PLAIN STATEMENT. 195 

proved entirely successful; and Savannah had the 
use of the Barracks for a number of years, to the 
mutual benefit of the United States Government 
and the city. The prompt and practical manner in 
which this application was treated by the Secretary 
of War, all minor impediments being brushed aside, 
while the utmost care was taken to fully protect the 
interests of the Government, made on me a deep 
impression, which has survived to this day. Later 
on in that summer Mr. Davis accompanied President 
Pierce to the mountains of Virginia, where I hap- 
pened then to be. The short official interviews at 
Washington were there followed by less restrained 
social intercourse, which proved to be most interest- 
ing and instructive. The extent and accuracy of his 
knowledge of men and things, and his exceptional 
capacity for imparting information in familiar, yet 
beautiful language, increased and completed the im- 
pression made on me in Washington. Naturally, I 
then became much interested in his public career. 
I met him again, casually, at the house of a friend, 
in the State of New York, where he had gone on 
public business, in the early autumn of 1860. Ex- 
cept in this instance, I did not see Mr. Davis until 
June, 1862, when I passed through Richmond on 
my way from the coast of Georgia, to join Stone- 
wall Jackson's command in the Valley. He had 
then been for more than a year the diligent, toiling. 



196 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

faithful, President of the new Confederacy. Labor, 
responsibility and care had already made their 
mark upon him, and seriously impaired his health. 
Yet, still a splendid horseman, as he rode along the 
lines around Richmond, visiting the various points 
of military interest, he was a figure not to be forgot- 
ten. Nor less did he impress me in the bosom of 
his family, the tender husband and father, the re- 
fined gentleman, the courteous and kindly friend. 

The exigencies of that terrible and glorious cam- 
paign of 1862, and its results to myself, prevented 
my seeing the President again for nearly a year, 
when I reached Richmond to report once more for 
active service in the field. But I found that the 
President had determined to assign me to duty as 
Quartermaster-General. I was thus detained in 
Richmond, and brought into close official relations 
with the Executive Department of the Government. 
It would be too personal to discuss here the feelings 
of hesitation, reluctance and anxiety with which I 
finally accepted so grave a trust. Suffice it to say, 
that for some time previous, and until the final over- 
throw of the Confederacy, the all-absorbing prob- 
lems to be solved were field and railway transporta- 
tion, and supplies for the Army — the first under the 
exclusive control of the Quartermaster's Department 
— and the same department, in much larger measure 
than all others combined, responsible for the latter. 



PLAIN STATEMENT. 197 

With no rolling-mills nor locomotive works to re- 
plenish dilapidated railways, while armies in the 
field were hundreds of miles distant from the 
sources of supply — every part of our territory spe- 
cially devoted to the raising of grain, wool, cattle 
and horses, either laid waste or in possession of the 
enemy — how were we to feed, clothe and transport 
our armies, and furnish horses and forage for 
wagon trains, cavalry and artillery ? The thorough 
comprehension of the situation by Mr. Davis im- 
pressed me forcibly on our first interviews in this 
new relation. And while he had most distinct and 
eminently wise views as to the proper division of re- 
sponsibility everywhere, and was slow to trench 
upon the functions of any other official, he never 
forgot that by far the largest share of that responsi- 
bility rose up from every inferior in grade, and ad- 
hered finally to the superior of all. 

This dependence on the Quartermaster-General for 
the essentials of transportation and supplies neces- 
sarily caused the President often to summon him to 
his presence, or to accomplish the interview through 
General Lee. Take an example, which is itself of 
absorbing interest : The battle of Chickamauga was 
imminent. General Lee was appealed to to send 
Longstreet's entire corps, horses and artillery from 
the Rapidan all the way to the shadow of Lookout 
Mountain, to reinforce General Bragg. Everything 



198 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

turned on the question of transportation and supply, 
and all had to be decided and performed with tele- 
graphic haste. If this corps could reach Bragg in 
time for the impending battle, he might expect suc- 
cess ; and General Lee ought, in that case, to detach 
and risk the absence of this important part of his 
army. But if Longstreet should reach Bragg too 
late to take part in the fight, and General Lee's 
strength diminished to that fearful extent, it might 
imperil the existence of both armies, and expose our 
weakness everywhere. The Quartermaster-General 
must say when Longstreet's corps could be delivered 
at Chickamauga. The time was named, and I 
tremble now as I recall the responsibility which that 
reply involved! The first detachment arrived in 
Richmond from the Rapidan the day after this inter- 
view at once filled all the trains in sight, then an- 
other, and another — and Longstreet joined Bragg 
almost at the moment when the firing commenced ! 
The result is known. 

Whenever complaint was made to the President 
by any commander, either in the field or of a mili- 
tary department, or by a member of Congress resi- 
dent therein, that the supply of clothing, horses, 
forage, field or railway trains belonging to that 
army or department was inadequate, or less in pro- 
portion than elsewhere, before the President would 
make any response he promptly summoned the 



PLAIN STATEMENT. I99 

Quartermaster-General, to learn from him the facts 
— obtained, if possible, the figures, and based his re- 
ply thereon. These details are given to show the 
great care of Mr. Davis to be informed before acting, 
and, while not avoiding any responsibility himself to 
call to his aid the chief of every department, and 
fix that responsibility where the evil could, if possi- 
ble, be arrested or corrected. And further, I wish 
to show, at the risk of seeming egotism, what oppor- 
tunity, yea, what necessity there was for me to know 
that of which I speak. Believing that I am without 
excuse, if mistaken, I do not hesitate to say, that in 
every instance of the nature here referred to (and I 
must refrain from further details) I never saw or 
heard anything, in manner or speech, that exhibited 
either undue temper or ill will against any officer or 
servant of the Confederate States. But the action 
or inaction of each was discussed entirely with ref- 
erence to its effect on the result and the " cause." 
On some of these occasions Mr. Davis was suffering 
torture from physical maladies, and could not sit at 
ease a moment. 

His thorough and accurate acquaintance with all 
that was transpiring within the Confederate States, 
and his familiarity with all obtainable knowledge of 
things outside that affected our cause, was a con- 
stant surprise to those brought into immediate con- 
tact with him. Not less conspicuous was his readi- 



200 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ness for self-sacrifice, and his unwillingness to con- 
demn, or even harshly to criticise others, until full 
information was obtained as to where the blame 
should rest. These qualities were, in part, the 
source of the reproaches so frequently brought 
against him, that he adhered to his friends at the ex- 
pense of the public interest, and upheld them 
against the general clamor of adverse opinion. 
This holding fast to personal friendships, and giving 
countenance where it is most needed, may become a 
serious fault in a public man of high position and 
great power. But it is in itself such a beautiful 
virtue, or such a noble failing, as you may prefer to 
characterize it, that who of us, with generous in- 
stincts, does not love and admire it? Those who 
looked into the depths of his human soul loved him 
for these very traits ! The longer I live the more I 
prize the name of friendship, which waits and seeks 
for opportunity to serve, and steps gladly to the 
front when needed, even though not summoned ! 

To my mind, the most difficult and painful part 
which Mr. Davis had to enact was forced on him 
after hostilities had ceased, by his long and severe 
imprisonment, and then his retirement from all par- 
ticipation in active affairs during the remainder of 
his life. A man of great pride, indomitable indus- 
try and energy, and of a temper naturally quick and 
strong, though controlled, he felt — oh ! how nobly — 



PLAIN STATEMENT. 201 

ainid his constant physical sufferings, the responsi- 
bility of so bearing himself as to bring no reproach 
on the lost cause ; coming to the front only on rare 
occasions, when attacks upon this cause, and the 
earnest desire of his fellow Confederates, did not 
permit him to remain silent. How well he bore 
himself on these occasions let his record attest ! 

In connection with his wonderful powers of utter- 
ance, and perfect mastery of the English language, 
I recall with sincere pleasure an inquiry about Mr. 
Davis, made by Lord Rosebery while on a visit to 
the United States many years since ; and the desire 
expressed to make his personal acquaintance. His 
Lordship remarked that Mr. Davis delivered his in- 
augural at Montgomery, when he (Rosebery) was a 
youth, about leaving Eton College. The elegant 
style and high tone of the address so fired his youth- 
ful admiration that he followed it up by reading 
carefully every State paper from that source as soon 
as published. He said there was nothing finer in all 
the records of State papers than these messages and 
proclamations. When I asked him if his curiosity 
had led him to look at these papers in more mature 
years, he replied with emphasis, "The re-perusal 
has more than confirmed the impressions and ad- 
miration of my younger days." 

As I only undertake to give the result of such 
desultory observations as I was permitted personally 
to make, I will add but one more incident. 



202 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

On my first visit to the North on business, after 
the war, in the spring of 1866, I had the pleasure to 
meet Mrs. Davis on the train from New York to 
Washington, availing herself of the first permit to 
visit her husband in his prison at Fortress Monroe. 
At her request I stopped over a day in Washington, 
to confer with two or three public men, and see 
whether there could not be some mitigation of his 
prison life. To my surprise, one of the names she 
gave me (whom she thought would be willing to 
further her wishes) was the Senator from Massachu- 
setts, General Wilson, afterwards Vice-President of 
the United States. I approached him with marked 
embarrassment, but he soon made one feel at ease. 
" I have," he said, " very great' respect for Jefferson 
Davis, having served with him in the Senate and on 
the Military Committee of that body. He is an 
able, courageous and conscientious man ; and though 
I think he was wrong in ^ome important things, I 
am sure he was as honest in his convictions as I 
was. While I insist on the political results of the 
war, I am utterly opposed to all such personal pun- 
ishments. If I can do anything to mitigate his 
situation, you can rely on me. But I fear those in 
executive authority do not agree with me." Many 
years elapsed before I had an opportunity to men- 
tion this interview to Mr. Davis, and General Wil- 
son had then long been dead. With much feeling 



PLAIN STATEMENT. 203 

lie said : " 1 knew Wilson well — his honesty and 
frankness — and am not at all surprised at what he 
felt, and said to you.'* 

His last utterance in print was a reply to Lord 
Wolseley's harsh and unjust strictures upon himself 
in the North American Revieio ; and there it was 
shown that the weight of all his troubles and af- 
flictions, and of his more than four-score years, had 
not dimmed his intellect, nor diminished his power 
to marshal the facts of history and rebuke the 
wrong. 

I must close, though the debt I owe to our great 
chief is not paid. It never can be. For my opin- 
ion is not newly formed, but has been long and per- 
sistently maintained, that his abilities were of the 
highest order, his career without spot or blemish, 
even to the day of his death ; and that he illus- 
trated to the full extent the finest traits of the South- 
ern Christian gentleman, the accomplished and ever 
faithful public servant. 



• JEFFERSON DAVIS AS I KNEW HIM. 

BY HON, REUBEN DAVIS. 

'' Wherefore I shall not fatigue myself to seek that which is impossible 
to find, and I shall not consume my life in flattering myself with the vain 
hope of seeing a man without blame among us mortals, who live upon what 
the earth presents to us." 

" Now Esteem is a sincere homage, which causes a soul to be sincerely 
touched and affected ; whereas Praise is frequently but a vain and deceitful 
sound." Plato. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS was a man whose high 
fortune it had been to deserve in full measure 
that esteem declared by the greatest philoso- 
pher to be the worthiest tribute a man may receive 
from his fellow men. On the other hand, it has 
been his misfortune to have heaped upon him that 
ill-considered and undiscriminating praise condemned 
by the same great mind as an insult to the common 
sense of the living, and an offence against the 
majesty of the noble dead. Our hearts revolt 
against such homage, as though one should seek to 
enbalm the royal dead with cheap spices and per- 
fumes, instead of breaking above the sacred body 
that rich casket of ointment, chrism, consecrated to 
heroes and princes among men, because distilled 
only from immortal plants — those " actions of the 
just, which smell sweet, and blossom in the dust." 
204 



JEFFERSON DAVIS AS I KNEW HIM. 205 

For my part, in beginning some slight memorial 
of the noble gentleman whom I have regarded with 
esteem, admiration and affection for fifty years, and 
whose death comes to Southern men of my genera- 
tion as the rending of ties close and strong, I hold 
that I reverence him but by simple truth. He had 
splendid and lofty qualities enough, not only to 
atone for some defects of character and temperament, 
but, so to speak, to make those defects a necessary 
part of his individuality. 

What sort of friendship is that which plays tricks 
with a man's memory, making paltry excuses here, 
or paltry denials there? To be perfectly loyal, a 
man must love his friend, faults and all, scorning to 
paint him otherwise than as God made him. 

There is nothing in all nature more certain than 
the great law of limitation, which holds all men in 
bondage, and, by which, an excess of any one power 
or quality, presupposes a corresponding deficiency in 
the opposite direction. And it is the men born with 
these abnormal forces who become the leaders of 
nations. It is such men who compel the respect and 
admiration of honest men, whatever may be their 
differences of opinion, or however bitterly they may 
be opposed to each other. 

That Jefferson Davis was such a man was proved 
by the almost universal tribute of the public press — 
that great voice which can be surely trusted to utter 



20G KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

all that is best, deepest and truest in popular thought 
and sentiment. I speak now not so much of the 
warm outpouring of natural Southern emotion, but 
of the calmer verdict of those who had been his ene- 
mies, who still abhorred the creed to which he died 
steadfast, but who honored themselves in giving him 
due honor. In one of these articles, written in no 
unkindly spirit, I am sure — the editor spoke uncon- 
sciously a proud word for the South. He said : 
" The South gives itself up to passionate lamentation 
for Jefferson Davis, not knowing, perhaps, how 
much more of pride than of grief is behind their 
emotion." We accept this without question, and 
glory in the knowledge that when a whole people 
knelt by the bier ot the man whom the South de- 
lighted to honor, a grief untainted by shame or 
dishonor filled their hearts. 

When a man lives to extreme old age, there can be 
only a narrow circle in which his loss is keenly felt 
as a personal sorrow, and very few whose lives are 
changed by his going away. Of those who live now, 
few remember Jefferson Davis in his prime, scarcely 
any in his early youth. I do not know if there is 
a single survivor of the class who were his comrades 
at West Point, or of those who shared with him the 
adventures and dangers of the Black Hawk War. 
That he distinguished himself from the beginning of 
his career as a student and soldier, is well known. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS AS I KNEW HIM. 207 

While still a very young man, fate dealt him a 
cruel blow, which changed the current of his life at 
the time, and, by so doing, altered the whole course 
of his future. His young wife, to whom he was 
devotedly attached, died a few months after mar- 
riage, and he mourned for her as a man mourns for 
the love of his youth. Withdrawing himself from 
his accustomed pursuits and associations, he retired 
to his estate at Brierfield, where he lived for ten 
years in great seclusion. These ten years were 
devoted to patient study, and it is no doubt to this 
prolongation of his student life that he owed the 
ripeness of his knowledge, and the polished beauty 
of his style, both in speaking and writing. The 
course of study adopted by him, and his unwearied 
investigation of all questions appertaining to human 
life and the science of government, fitted him to 
adorn the high places he was destined to fill. 

One defect in his mental structure — the too minute 
attention to detail and form — had been hardened 
into a fixed habit by his military training. Had his 
destiny led him to rulership in a settled and power- 
ful government, ruled by precedent, and requiring 
only a firm, strong hand to guide, and a polished 
intellect to adorn, this training would have been 
admirable. A revolution calls for different qualities, 
and a man less great than Jefferson Davis might 
have possessed an order of talent far more effective 



208 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ill great emergencies. Gifted with some of the 
highest attributes of a statesman, he lacked the 
pliancy which enables a man to adapt his measures 
to the crises. His determination was fixed to bend 
the crises to his measures. 

In 1843 an important issue claimed the attention 
of our people. This was the repudiation of the 
Union Bank bonds. As this question was one of 
great importance, touching the credit and honor of 
the whole State, it brought out the ablest men both 
for and against it. Some of those friends who knew 
Jefferson Davis intimately, and who recognized his 
wonderful powers of persuasive logic, determined to 
bring him out of his long retirement at a crisis when 
he could make a brilliant entrance into public action. 
They selected an adversary with whom few untried 
orators would have dared to measure themselves — 
the renowned L. L. Prentiss. The discussion lasted 
for two days, and was probably never surpassed in 
the force and beauty of the speeches. It was 
claimed that Mr. Davis came off victor. He was, 
without doubt, far superior to Mr. Prentiss as a 
debater, and scarcely less fascinating in style and 
manner of speaking. 

It was not until the summer of 1844 that I had 
the honor of a personal acquaintance with Mr. 
Davis, though I had before that time regarded him 
with admiration as one of the most gifted young 



JEFFERSON DAVIS AS I KNEW HIM. 209 

men of the South. At a meeting of the Democratic 
Convention to appoint electors, Mr. Davis had made 
a speech so brilliant and convincing that, upon its 
conclusion, the whole body had risen, and nominated 
him by acclamation for district elector. General 
Harry S. Foote had been nominated elector for the 
State at large. Davis and Foote traveled together 
and made joint speeches. 

I had been invited to attend a barbecue at Davis' 
Mill, on the line dividing Tennessee and Mississippi, 
and the day before, reached Holly Springs in time to 
hear the discussion. It was there that I first heard 
Mr. Davis speak, and was captivated by his lucid 
argument and delightful oratory. I do not think that 
I ever listened to any man with more pleasure and 
admiration, and, I may say here, that his speeches 
always impressed me in the same manner, even when, 
as afterwards happened, I was unable to adopt his 
side of the matter under discussion. At that time, 
however, there was no discord in our opinions, and 
I recall as among the most agreeable recollections 
of that by-gone time, our subsequent journey to 
Aberdeen, where Davis and Foote were to attend a 
great barbecue, and to be my guests for some days. 

Everywhere they went they were received with 

enthusiasm, and from that canvass may be dated 

the ascendency which Mr. Davis began to hold over 

the popular mind and heart of Mississippi. He was 
14 



210 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

elected to Congress, but resigned when chosen 
Colonel of the First Mississippi Regiment of Volun- 
teers for the Mexican War. His regiment was 
made up of the best material in the State, and well 
officered. At first the men resented the strict disci- 
pline their colonel was wise enough to enforce, and for 
a time he was somewhat unpopular in consequence. 
Afterwards they realized the advantages of this 
severity, and, having found their leader as fearless 
in action as he was resolute in discipline, they 
almost idolized him. 

Nothing could have been finer than the handling 
of that regiment in the battle of Buena Vista — nor 
more heroic than the personal courage of Colonel 
Davis. Although painfully wounded early in the 
morning, he continued his duty as if unhurt, even 
when urged by General Taylor himself to leave the 
field. His reply was noble and characteristic : " My 
men are full of spirit and courage, but there might be 
some mistake, under which they might falter, and 
so lose the day. I will stay with them till the fight 
is over." He had that high sense of duty which 
yielded to no pain of body or personal pride. 

When he returned to Mississippi on crutches he 
was received with that enthusiasm which his great 
services so well merited. I do not think there was 
ever a time after that when he did not stand first in 
the hearts of Mississippians. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS AS I KNEW HIM. 211 

Very early In the movement toward secession, he 
was recognized as one of the leaders of the Disunion 
party. Believing as he did, first and last in the 
absolute sovereignty of the States, he never altered 
his policy, or the conviction that secession was the 
only safety and duty of the South. I do not believe 
that personal ambition had any conscious share in 
determining his action during this time, though he 
must have known that, should a new government be 
formed, he would certainly be chosen to fill the high- 
est place in it. That a man of his ambition, and 
just confidence in his ability, and in the affection 
and admiration of the Southern people, could have 
been contented with a subordinate place in a revo- 
lution which he was so active in bringing about, was 
not to be expected. 

But that he was sincerely devoted to the cause 
for which he fought, and that he believed in the 
principles of that cause with all the force of a mind 
clear in its convictions, and a character tenacious 
even to obstinacy in its determinations, cannot be 
doubted. His was essentially a strong and forceful 
nature, and he possessed the grand quality of stead- 
fastness in its fullest measure. 

Resenting opposition with the unalterable resent- 
ment of a reserved, proud and self-centred nature, 
it was not a possibility with him to recognize the 
justice of such opposition, even when proved by the 



212 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

fatal results of a contrary policy, From this char- 
acteristic, it followed almost necessarily that he was 
sometimes obstinate in measures which afterward 
proved disastrous to the cause to which his whole 
heart was devoted; and that his prejudice for and 
against certain men, led to grave errors in selection 
for, and exclusion from, places of trust. 

It is idle now to question how far the result could 
have been changed by a different policy, or whether 
the great game of war and politics could have been so 
played as to give victory to the South ; worse than 
idle for even those who would then have died for the 
cause, no longer regret that it is a lost one. Still it 
cannot be denied that our whole policy was from the 
first fatal to all hope of success. Only the splendid 
courage of our soldiers, and the skill of a few of our 
commanders, could have prolonged the struggle 
through four wretched years. Of those years, I 
confess I cannot bring myself to write. It is like a 
nightmare to recall the bitter days when, as it 
seemed to me, thousands of lives were sacrificed, 
untold miseries endured, and the self-devotion of our 
people poured out in vain. The result which was 
accepted a quarter of a century ago as a woful 
necessity, has gradually evolved itself into a national 
gain. There are few men in the new South, who 
are not glad of our undivided nationality. The 
bitterness is that we blundered so fearfully ; that we 



JEFFERSON DAVIS AS I KNEW HIM. 213 

threw away so many chances, and that our struggle, 
noble as it was, was embittered by so many ignoble 
jealousies, and frustrated by so many unworthy 
enmities. 

It was the strength as well as the weakness of 
Jefferson Davis, that to the last he could not see 
this. Unbending in his conviction, he was sustained 
through defeat, captivity, and the long years of 
enforced inaction, by the serene approval of his 
mind and conscience. He believed that the cause 
for which he had toiled and suffered, was just and 
holy, and that the measures adopted to sustain it 
were the best which could have been devised under 
the circumstances. 

To my mind, this heroic and good man makes a 
noble picture, with the ruins of his life's work all 
around him, and " all but his faith overthrown." 

That a man should be right always is impossible — 
it is an impertinence to expect it of poor humanity. 
When he has the strength to venture all for a high 
vision, however mistaken, to live through slow years 
of defeat and failure, and die, holding fast his in- 
tegrity, the world can give us no grander spectacle. 

As the world is constituted, there is a vulgarizing 
element in success, with its blatant triumph and 
sordid following. Always, in History or Poem, it is 
the good man, steadfast against adverse fortune, who 
claims the homage of all hearts. 



RECOLLECTIONS AND TRIBUTE. 

BY HON. GEORGE DAVIS, 

Member of Mr. Davis' Cabinet. 

"T HAVE said ye are gods, and all of you are 
X children of the Most High. But ye shall die 

like men, and fall like one of the princes." 
Jefferson Davis is dead. A prince has fallen — 
a true prince in all that most ennobles our man- 
hood. To die in the purple of power and state, 
to fall in the rush of battle, where cannons are 
roaring and bayonets are flashing, to sink in the 
arms of victory, to end in the glare and dazzle of 
proud achievements — chieftain and soldier as he 
was — these things were not for him. 

After long years of toil and anxiety, of strife 
and bitterness, of struggle and failure, of hatred 
and insult and slander, of poverty and misfortune, 
of weariness, pain and suffering, having finished his 
course he now rests from his labors — rests in peace. 
He has passed from earth, enduring unto the end. 

*' O ! let him pass. He hates liim 
That would upon the rack of this tough world 
Stretch him out longer." 

Whatever was great in his public life — and there 

was much — whatever was memorable in his actions, 
214 



RECOLLECTIONS AND TRIBUTE. 215 

as soldier, scholar, orator, statesman, patriot, these 
things I relegate to history. I desire only to utter 
a few simple words in loving remembrance of the 
chief I honored, of the man I admired, of the dead 
friend whom I loved. What manner of man was 
this for whom ten millions of people are in grief 
and tears this day ? No man ever lived upon whom 
the glare of public attention beat more fiercely, 
no man ever lived more sharply criticised, more 
unjustly slandered, more sternly censured, more 
strongly condemned, more bitterly hated, more 
wrongly maligned, and, though slandered by ene- 
mies, betrayed by false friends, carped at by igno- 
rant fools, no man ever lived who could more 
fearlessly, like a great man who long preceded him, 
"leave the vindication of his fair fame to the 
next ages and to men's charitable speeches." Stand- 
ing here to-day by his open grave, and, in all 
probability, not very far from my own, I declare to 
you that he was the honestest, truest, gentlest, 
bravest, tenderest, manliest man I ever knew : and 
what more could I say than that? My public life 
was long since over, my ambition went down with 
the banner of the South, and, like it, never rose 
again. I have had abundant time in all these quiet 
years, and it has been my favorite occupation, to 
review the occurrences of that time, and recall over 
the history of that tremendous struggle, to remem- 



216 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ber with love and admiration, the great men who 
bore their part in its events. 

I have often thought what was it that the South- 
ern people had to be most proud of in all the 
proud things of their record. Not the achieve- 
ments of our arms. No man is more proud of them 
than I; no man rejoices more in Manassas, Chan- 
cellorsville and in Richmond ; but all nations have 
had their victories. There is something, I think, 
better than that, and it was this, that through all 
the bitterness of that time, and throughout all the 
heat of that fierce contest, Jefferson Davis and 
Robert E. Lee never S23oke a word, never wrote a 
line that the whole neutral world did not accept 
as the very indisputable truth. You all remember 
that Mr. Davis did not send a message to Congress, 
in which he portrayed the condition and causes of 
things, that all the world did not know it to be true. 
You know, Mr. Chairman, and you remember, you 
old grey jackets; yes, you all remember, that when 
General Lee, in his quiet, modest, reverent way, 
would telegraph to Mr. Davis, at Richmond, that 
God had mercifully blessed our arms, not all the 
lying bulletins that shingled over half the world 
could make any one believe that there had been a 
Federal victory. Aye, truth was the guiding star 
of both of them, and that is a grand thing to 
remember ; upon that my memory rests more proudly 



RECOLLECTIONS AND TRIBUTE. 217 

than upon anything else. It is a monument better 
than marble, more durable than brass. Teach it to 
your children, that they may be proud to remember 
Jefferson Davis. 

The more you knew him, the nearer you came to 
him, the more you saw and heard him, the greater 
he grew. 

He has been growing greater and greater for 
twenty-five years ; he will be greater one hundred 
years hence than he is to-day. Such wonderful and 
accurate information I never saw. He seemed to me 
to have traversed the whole course of science and of 
nature and of art. Whatever was the topic of con- 
versation, from making a horseshoe to interpreting 
the Constitution, from adjusting a jack-plane to 
building a railroad, he not only seemed to know all 
about it, but could tell you the most approved 
method of doing it all. Some people have an idea, 
and not a few, I expect, that Mr. Davis was a cold, 
severe, austere, unfeeling man. There never was a 
more untrue opinion. No man ever had a better 
ridit to know than I. For sixteen months I had 
the honor to be at the head of the Law Department 
of the Government, and every sentence of a military 
court that went to Mr. Davis was referred to me 
for examination and report. I do not think I am a 
very cruel man, but I declare to you it was the most 
difficult thing in the world to keep Mr. Davis up to 



218 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

the measure of justice. He wanted to pardon 
everybody, and if ever a wife, or mother, or a sister 
got into his presence, it took but a little while for 
their tears to wash out the records. 

Hear what General Taylor wrote of him — General 
Dick Taylor, who knew him even better than I did, 
and who was himself, 

"The knightliest of the knightly race 
That since the days of old 
Have kept the lamp of chivalry 
Alight in hearts of gold." 

"In the month of March, 1875, my devoted wife 
was released from suffering. Smitten by the calam- 
ity, I stood by her coffin as it was closed, to look 
for the last time upon features that death had 
respected and restored to their girlish beauty. Mr. 
Davis came reverently to my side and stooped 
reverently to touch the fair brow, when the tender- 
ness of his heart overcame him and he burst into 
tears. His example completely unnerved me for 
the time, but was of service in the end. For many 
succeeding days he came to me and was as gentle 
as a young mother with her suffering infant. Mem- 
ory will ever recall Jefferson Davis as he stood with 
me by that coffin." 

I do not know, but I profess to you that I 
thoroughly believe that he could never read the 
story of " Little Nell " or the death of Colonel New- 



EECOLLECTIONS AND TEIBUTE. 219 

come without his eyes being bedimmed with tears. 
Once he was indisposed in Richmond, so sick that 
the physician confined him to the bed. To relieve 
the monotony, his wife was reading to him one 
morning some story — I do not remember what. 
He was so quiet that Mrs. Davis thought he was 
asleep, but did not stop for fear of awaking him. 
She got to that portion of the book where the villain 
of the story got the heroine into his power, and 
was coming it pretty strong over her, when sud- 
denly she heard him exclaim : " The infernal vil- 
lain !" and looking around, the President was sitting 
up in bed with both fists clenched. Well, this is a 
little thing; do you respect him less for it? It 
showed that he was a man, not a cold image set up 
on a pedestal for us to admire, a man with the faults 
and weaknesses of human nature, but a man with 
the great virtues of a great nature. I never saw a 
man more simple in his habits of life. He sur- 
rounded himself with no barriers of forms and 
ceremonies. The humblest soldier in the ranks, 
the plainest citizen in the Confederacy, could have 
as easy access to him as the members of his Cabinet, 
when such demands on his time were consistent with 
the demands of the public service. No man ever 
lived who more thoroughly despised the mere show 
and tinsel of state and power, and the trappings of 
office. 



220 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Mr. Davis was at the head of one of the grandest 
armies the world ever saw in a time when " laws 
were silent in the midst of arms/' and I give you 
my word I never saw him attended by a guard 
or even by an orderly. His domestic servants and 
his office messengers were all that he needed, and 
all that he would have. I say he was never 
attended by a guard ; he was once, and I shall never 
forget the pleasure with which he told me of it. 
When General Lee was encamped on the banks of 
the Chickahominy, near Richmond, Mr. Davis was 
in the habit every afternoon, after the business of 
his office was over, of riding out to his headquarters. 
Upon these visits he always w^ent on horseback, and 
generally alone. Upon one occasion he was detained 
later than usual, and night had fallen before he 
left General Lee's tent. As he rode along he heard 
a horse approaching rapidly, and presently a cheery 
young voice cried out, " Good evening," and as he 
turned to salute, a young lad rode up to his side — 
a mere boy of sixteen or seventeen years of age, 
but he wore the grey jacket, and had his rifle on his 
shoulder and his revolver in his belt. " Good even- 
ing, is your name Davis ?" " Yes." " Jeffi^rson 
Davis ?" " Yes." " I thought so. Now, don't you 
think you are doing very wrong to be riding around 
in the dark by yourself?" Mr. Davis said he was 
within our lines, and had nothing to fear from 



EECOLLECTIONS AND TRIBUTE. 221 

Confederate soldiers. " It ain't right," said the boy, 
" for there are bad men in our army as well as in 
all armies." Mr. Davis, in his kind and gentle way, 
entered into conversation with him, and they rode 
on five or six miles together, until they reached the 
fortifications of the city, when the boy drew up and 
said: "Well, I'll turn back now. Good evening," 
and rode away into the darkness. The brave lad 
thought the President was in danger, and he made 
himself his body-guard, determined to see him 
through; and he would have died for him there 
upon that lonely road with as much bravery and 
cheerfulness as thousands of his comrades were 
dying every day for the cause Mr. Davis repre- 
sented. 

Ah, his people loved him, and have met together 
to-day to show it to the world. I once witnessed a 
scene which showed how the people loved him. In 
May, 1867, after two years of the most brutal treat- 
ment, the most brutal imprisonment the world ever 
saw, outside of Siberia, unrelieved by the slightest 
touch of kindness or generosity, Mr. Davis was 
brought to trial before the Federal Court in Rich- 
mond. I chanced to be there, and promised Mrs. 
Davis, as soon as I had any intimation of what the 
court was going to do, to come and report. I sat in 
the court when Chief Justice Chase announced that 
the prisoner was released. I never knew how I 



222 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

got out of that court-house, or through the crowd 
that lined the streets, but I found myself in Mrs. 
Davis' room and reported. In a little while I looked 
out of a window and saw that the streets were 
lined with thousands and thousands of the people 
of Richmond, and scarcely passage was there even 
for the carriage in which Mr. Davis rode at a funeral 
gait ; and as he rode every head was bared, not a 
sound was heard, except now and then a long sigh, 
and so he ascended to his wife's chamber. That 
room was crowded with friends, male and female. 
As Mr. Davis entered they rushed to him and threw 
their arms around him. They embraced each other, 
old soldiers, men of tried daring, cried like infants. 
Dear old Dr. Minnegerode lifted up his hands, with 
big tears rolling down his cheeks, and the assembled 
company knelt down, while he offered up a short 
thanksgiving to God for having restored to us our 
revered chieftain. 

Now, what more can I say ? I have endeavored 
to give you these little personal traits of Mr. Davis 
in order that you might know him better. I have 
said he was a prince. He was far better than that. 
He was a high-souled, true-hearted Christian gentle- 
man. And if our poor humanity has any higher 
form than that, I know not what it is. His great 
and active intellect never exercised itself with ques- 
tioning the being of God or the truth of His reve- 



RECOLLECTIONS AND TEIBUTE. 223 

lations to man. He never thought it wise or smart 
to scoff at mysteries which he could not understand. 
He never was daring enough to measure infinite 
power and goodness by the poor, narrow gauge of a 
limited, crippled human intellect. Where he under- 
stood he admired, worshipped, adored. Where he 
could not understand, he rested unquestioningly 
upon a faith that was as the faith of a little child — 
a faith that never wavered, and that made him look 
always undoubtingly, fearlessly through life, through 
death, to life again. 



"MY DEAD HERO." 

BY CHARI<ES MINNIGERODE, D.D., 
Mr. Davis' Pastor during the War. 

THAT is the plaintive name given to him in a 
personal letter to me by the one who knew 
him best and loved him most — his noble, 
stricken widow. And millions have responded in a 
loud and solemn echo, " Our Dead Heror 

I do not know that History, in any time or coun- 
try, has witnessed such deep-toned, universal feel- 
ing, such a spontaneous upheaving of the deepest 
sorrow and sympathy of the heart, and, as if stand- 
ing at his grave, from every quarter of the South, 
people poured out their lament, their admiration, 
loyalty and love in such irrepressible manifestations. 

In the great epochs and events of History there 
ever rises one man, who seems to be pointed out by 
Providence as the leader in the struggle, and in 
whom the conflict is represented and, as it were, in- 
carnated, A Cromwell, William of Orange, our own 
peerless Washington — not one of them were the 
originators, the cause of events. Circumstances, the 
necessities of the times, brought them to the surface, 
and put them in the place for which Providence had 
called them and fitted them. If I have understood 
224 



^ t^ 



'i z 



n •< 

e: "^ 

3 I—: 

f s 




" MY DEAD HEEO." 225 

Mr. Davis' position at all, he gloried in the Revolu- 
tion of the Colonies in 1776 as the struggle for the 
rights and liberties which belonged to them as their 
natural claims which the home-country denied to 
them. The secession of the Southern States was in 
defence of their constitutional rights, which were 
threatened by the aggressive and unconstitutional 
policy of the Government. That Government was 
a union of the separate Colonies as sovereign States, 
which delegated certain powers to the General Gov- 
ernment as the central agent of the sovereign States. 
The debate about their mutual relation was lonsr, 
and the two views of a centralized nation and a 
union of sovereign States existed from the begin- 
ning. But there would have been no United States 
at all if the States' rights had not been established 
by the Constitution. It is the fundamental and car- 
dinal bond of the different States, which, only on 
these terms, at last ratified and accej)ted the Consti- 
tution. The right of States to withdraw when they 
deemed themselves wronged by measures of the 
Central Government was claimed more than once by 
Northern States, while there was an equilibrium in 
strength and power of the two sections. But the 
bond of union, with the glorious recollections and 
struggles of the common country, prevented action. 
It was only when the North became overwhelming 

in power, and its population growing from year to 
15 



22G REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

year, that separation or withdrawal became a possi- 
bility. Compromises upon compromises staved off 
the danger, but did not secure the minority of the 
States against the aggressive policy of the North. 
Noble men in the North and South labored for years 
to heal the breach, and Jefferson Davis was among 
the foremost to labor for the Union and urge the 
policy of patience, forbearance and hope, dreading 
separation as the most unhappy event. But in vain. 
The strife went on; the breach widened. And at 
last the Southern States felt themselves forced to 
meet what to them appeared as secession on the part 
of the North from the fundamental and cardinal 
features of the Constitution, by their constitutional 
right to withdraw (they did not think it right to 
disobey or rebel while part and parcel of the United 
States Government) ; when delay would have event- 
ually resulted in the subjugation of the South to 
mere majority, and the surrender of all their liber- 
ties guaranteed by the Constitution, reducing the 
sovereign States to mere provinces — then it was not 
revolution or rebellion, but the resort to their con- 
stitutional right of secession, which was chosen ; and 
life, property and honor were pledged in support of 
their action. 

These were the views of the Southern States, and 
shared to this day — at least as far as the constitu- 
tional question is concerned — by many in the North. 



"MY DEAD HEEO." 227 

In the very beginning of the trouble I had a long 
and earnest letter from a dear friend and distin- 
guished constitutional lawyer in the North, acknowl- 
edging that we were in the right indeed, but that 
they were bound to fight us, even in self-defence, — 
" we cannot do without the South, cannot allow it to 
become a separate State." The feeling for his sec- 
tion made him consent to do what he held to be con- 
stitutionally wrong. And many like him have al- 
lowed their sectional allegiance to override their 
legal scruples. 

Whatever may be thought of these views, and 
however they may be affected by the failure of the 
Confederacy, it was on their part a struggle for life 
and liberty, and the right of self-defence when their . 
liberties were threatened. 

Jeflferson Davis held these views conscientiously 
and consistently. When his State seceded, he fol- 
lowed the call of the sovereign State, to which he 
owed his first allegiance. 

I have ventured to make these statements, be- 
cause they are the key to his whole life and his 
every action. He was one of the most consistent 
and conscientious of men — " a duty man," as he was 
in the habit of calling others whom he trusted and 
esteemed, and whom he gauged by that — and noth- 
ing could turn him from what he considered to be 
his duty. He was as unselfish as it falls to the best 



228 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

of men to be ; he had " no axe to grind," and would 
have spurned himself for seeking his self-interest or 
his own glory. He lived and died a true hero in the 
maintenance of the position into which Providence 
— "the vox 2>opuU," alike as what was (to him) "the 
vox Dei" — called him. That call came to him 
loudly and unanimously from the whole South ; and 
I think all admit that he was the only one who 
could have conducted the terrible task that was ap- 
pointed him. He never sought : he was sought. It 
was his genius, his talents, his character, that raised 
him from place to place, from honor to honor, and 
singled him out as the one man the South could trust 
with the responsibility of Chief of the Southern 
Confederacy. 

Jefferson Davis was the rarest combination of tal- 
ents and excellency in almost every department: 
military, political, legal, administrative, moral and, 
I boldly add, religious. 

Military: who earned his spurs and reached celeb- 
rity in the wars of his country ; by nature perhaps 
more ambitious in that line than any other, and 
vwho, I am sure, would gladly have been in the 
saddle, and commanded his armies, had not higher 
duties and his respect for his glorious generals re- 
strained him. 

Political : as shown by the influence he gained in 
every position, and his sagacity, which amounted to 



"MY DEAD HEKO." 229 

true statesmanship, clear in his views, comprehen- 
sive, and yet fully at home in details. 

Legal ;^a mind thoroughly trained in the law, and 
one of the best expounders of the Constitution — the 
basis on which he stood in all his actions. 

Administrative : to a degree which roused the ad- 
miration of the world and even his enemies, and 
which enabled him to hold together the different 
views and preferences of people, to create order 
where was at first only enthusiasm, to employ as his 
counselors the best talent, and with their help to 
bind together all the different elements of his wide 
field, to bring into shape all that was unformed, to 
take a country unprepared, without regular training, 
without finances, without the materials of war, shut 
out from all external help, and conduct and sustain 
its affairs through four long years of war, suffering, 
difficulties and wants, when everything had first to 
be created by his energetic and clear-headed co-oper- 
ation and direction. 

Moral: The glory, I think, of the Confederacy 
was the order and decency with which everything 
was conducted, and the example set by its chief 
There were more Christian men at the head of the 
different departments, more soldiers of Christ in offi- 
cers and men than I have ever known : " Christ was 
in the camp." I know more of Mr. Davis in this 
respect than perhaps any other man. I knew more 



230 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

of his inner life, and saw him intimately in all pos- 
sible situations : always true, there was not a false 
fibre in him ; always pure, his whole being loathing 
an impure thought, anything low or corrupting ; and 
when he became a communicant of the Church, he 
verified in his person, in word and deed, as far as I 
could judge, that he was " pure in heart,'' and lived 
conscientiously in the sight of God. All his habits 
bore the stamp of that. 

And thus I will not say more of him as a religious 
man. I do not claim to have had much share in the 
development of his Christian character. I hope I 
was a help to him as he was to me. 

I would not be misunderstood. Though I believe 
I knew more of this than anybody, except his wife, 
and though I loved and honored him — a noble, un- 
selfish, guileless character — of course he had his 
faults : who has not ? and made mistakes : who does 
not ? But the man's self-control was wonderful, and 
the high aim that guided him saved him from the 
perils of those in such prominent positions, involved 
as he was in cruel warfare, affected by its harrowing 
and ever-changing situations. 

I would not be astonished if he had been " a good 
hater," such as Dr. Johnson "liked." All strong 
men have strong feelings. But it was more against 
the wrong-doing of men, than their persons. There 
was a generosity in him and a large-hearted disposi- 
tion which was ready to forgive. 



"MY DEAD HERO." 231 

With all his calmness and sagacity, such was his 
want of guile, that he was perhaps liable to fall 
under the influence of injudicious, perhaps even false 
friends, at least for a time. Like all of us, he had 
his prejudices and his preferences; but if he had 
faults like these, they were the result of his unso- 
phisticated, guileless nature, which looked for the 
good in people rather than the evil. His gentleness 
was charming, and in a thousand ways he showed his 
sympathy with the poor and needy. The war had 
not hardened him. I have occasionally been led to 
intercede for a prisoner of war, and he always took 
the side of mercy. I have known ladies — mothers 
from the North — to intercede in behalf of their sons, 
and leave him with blessings and tears of gratitude. 

I have heard him speak of his old friends of "West 
Point, on either side, with the deepest interest, and 
always with dignity and doing justice to his enemies 
in the conflict impartially and even heartily. He 
was a true gentleman and soldier. 

That any man should dare, at this time, when 
the true history of his conduct towards the prison- 
ers of war is made known and documentarily proved 
— should dare to repeat the extravagant and sensa- 
tional outcries of his vindictive maligners, and be 
low enough still to make capital of it for political, 
and South hating purposes, and that not only before 
mobs, but in the Congress of the United States, is 



232 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

almost incredible. The investigation of this subject 
is a dangerous thing for his defamers, be they who 
they may. 

His unselfishness was unsurpassed. Like a second 
Sir Philip Sidney, whenever offers of pecuniary help 
were made to him — much as he really needed it — 
he declined them courteously and advised that they 
be given to his poor soldiers and people. 

The events of his life are so closely connected 
with the events of the war, and have been spoken 
of and written of so often that I pass them. My 
connection with him was chiefly that of his pastor, 
and I will not prolong this article by retailing what 
I have said elsewhere. To many it would not be 
very interesting, perhaps. But all I have said of 
him, and his character is the result of my knowledge 
of him, through my personal, intimate intercourse 
during the war, during his imprisonment and since. 

It was worth seeing a man like him pass through 
the changing scenes of his eventful life, and watch 
the calm dignity, the firm determination, resolution 
to do his duty and trust in God and in the right- 
eousness of his cause. 

I remember the last meeting with him before the 
failure of our cause. I had dined with him in com- 
pany with Mr. Halcomb and a member of the Vir- 
ginia Legislature (I do not remember his name now), 
and after dinner we retired to his little ante-cham- 



"MY DEAD HERO." 233 

ber, speaking of various things, when General Lee 
came in, the soldier, the gentleman, the honored 
friend — just from the army before Petersburg. 
Calm and dignified as ever, he looked sad and 
thoughful, and the conversation soon turned on our 
condition. We all knew that it was as alarming as 
could be. Our friend from the Legislature said to 
him, " Cheer up, general. We have done a good 
work for you to-day. The Legislature has passed 
an order to raise an additional number of 15,000 
men for you." General Lee bowed his head meekly : 
" Yes, passing resolutions is kindly meant, but get- 
ting the men is another thing. Yes," he continued, 
with flashing eyes, "if I had 15,000 fresh additional 
troops, things would look very different." Mr. 
Davis knew how true were the fears of his general. 
It was sad to see these two men with their terrible 
responsibilities upon them and the hopeless outlook. 
Sad at heart, we left them to consult in lonely con- 
ference, I suppose about the possible necessity of 
evacuating Richmond. 

The 2d of April followed soon after this. Per- 
haps a strictly correct account may not be improper. 
It was Sunday, a beautiful Sunday like that of the 
first Manassas, and the air seemed full of something 
like a foreboding of good or bad. All expected a 
battle, and I know that wagons were held in readi- 
ness for transportation of commissary stores, ammu- 



234 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

nition, etc. The beautiful church of St. Paul, in its 
chaste simplicity and symmetry, was filled to the 
utmost, as always during the war. Mr. Davis, who 
never failed to be in his pew unless when sick or 
absent from the city, was there, devoutly following 
the services of the church. It was the regular day 
for the Holy Communion. Nothing had occurred 
to disturb the congregation, though anxiety was in 
many a heart. As the ante-communion service was 
read and the people were on their knees, I saw the 
sexton go to Mr. Davis' pew and hand him what 
proved to be a telegram. T could not but see it. 
Mr. Davis took it quietly, not to disturb the congre- 
gation, put on his overcoat and walked out. On 
communion occasions I was wont to make a short 
address from the chancel. While doing so, the sex- 
ton came in repeatly and called out this one and 
that one, all connected with the government and 
military service. Of course the congregation be- 
came very restless and I tried to finish my address 
as soon as I could, without adding to the threaten- 
ing panic. But when the sexton came to the chan- 
cel-railing and spoke to Rev. Mr. Kepler, who 
assisted me, they began to stir, and I closed as 
quickly as possible. Then Mr. Kepler told me the 
provost-marshal wanted to see me in the vestry- 
room. I went out and found Major Isaac H. Car- 
rington, who informed me that General Lee's lines 



" MY DEAD HERO." 235 

had been broken before Petersburg, that he was in 
retreat, and Richmond must be evacuated. As 
nothing would occur till the evening, he asked my 
advice whether the alarm should be rung at once or 
in the afternoon. We determined to wait till 3 
o'clock, and I returned to the chancel. As I entered 
I found the congregation streaming out of the 
church, and I sprang forward and called out, " Stop ! 
stop! there is no necessity for your leaving the 
church ; " and most of them (all who had not left 
before I got back) returned. Then I recalled my 
appointment for service that night, told the people 
that w^e had met with disaster before Petersburg, 
and a meeting of the citizens would be called by the 
alarm-bell at 3 o'clock in the Capitol Square ; that 
there was no occasion for them to leave at once, and 
requested the communicants to stay to the celebra- 
tion. About 250 or 300 remained, and some felt as 
if they were kneeling there with the halter around 
their necks. The panic was so great. 

That evening Mr. Davis left Richmond. A week 
later, after the battle of Appomattox, General Lee 
surrendered, and whilst General Johnston was still 
in the field and Kirby Smith with his army on the 
Mississippi, the Confederacy was virtually at an 
end. 

By the request of the publishers the incidents of 
my intercourse with Mr. Davis — although they have 



236 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

already appeared in some newspapers — are here in- 
serted to make the article complete. 

I cannot describe my meeting with Mr. Davis 
in his cell. He knew nothing of my coming, and it 
was difficult to control ourselves. 

Mr. Davis' room (he had been removed from 
the casemate, and the infamous outrage of putting 
him in chains) was an end room on the second floor, 
with a passage and window on each side of the room, 
and an ante-room in front separated by an open 
grated door — a sentinel on each passage and before 
the grated door of the ante-room. Six eyes were al- 
ways upon him day and night ; all alone, no one to 
see, no one to speak to ! 

I must hurry on. You may yourselves make out 
what our conversation must have been. 

The noble man showed the effect of the confine- 
ment ; but his spirit could not be subdued, and no 
indignity — angry as it made him at the time — could 
humiliate him. 

I was his pastor, and of course our conversation 
was influenced by that and there could be no hold- 
ing back between us. I had come to sympathize 
and comfort and pray with him. 

QUESTION OF COMMUNION. 

At last the question of the Holy Communion came 
up. I really do not remember whether he or I 



"MY DEAD HERO," 237 

first mentioned it. He was very anxious to take it. 
He was a purely pious man, and felt the need and 
value of the means of grace. But there was one 
difficulty. Could he take it in the proper spirit — in 
the frame of a forgiving mind, after all the ill treat- 
ment he had been subjected to ? He was too up- 
right and conscientious a Christian man " to eat and 
drink univortliily" — i.e., not in the proper spirit, 
and, as far as lay in him, in peace with God and man. 

I left him to settle that question between himself 
and his own conscience and what he understood 
God's law to be. 

In the afternoon General Miles took me to him 
again. I had spoken to him about the communion 
and he promised to make preparation for me. 

I found Mr. Davis with his mind made up. 
Knowing the honesty of the man, and that there 
would be, could be, "no shamming," nor mere 
"superstitious belief in the ordinance, I was delighted 
when I found him ready to commune. He had laid 
the bridle upon his very natural feeling and was 
ready to pray " Father, forgive them." 

A NOTABLE COMMUNION. 

Then came the communion — he and I alone, but 
with God. 

It was one of those cases where the Rubric can- 
not be binding. 



238 KEMIXISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

It was night. The fortress was so still that you 
could hear a pin fall. General Miles, with his back 
to us leaning against the fireplace in the ante-room ; 
his head in his hands not moving; the sentinels 
ordered to stand still, and they stood like statues. 

I cannot conceive of a more solemn communion 
scene. But it was telling upon both of us ; I trust 
for lasting good. 

Whenever I could I went down to see him, if only 
for an hour or two ; and when his wife was admitted 
to see him it was plain that their communings were 
with God. 

Time passed ; not a sign of any humiliating giving 
way to the manner in which he was treated; he 
was above that. He suffered, but was willing to 
suffer in the cause of the people who had given him 
their confidence and who still loved and admired 
and wept for the man that so nobly represented the 
cause which in their hearts they considered right 
and constitutional. 

A USELESS APPEAL TO STANTON. 

His health began to be affected. The ofiicers of 
the fortress all felt that he ought to have the liberty 
of the fort, not only because that could in no way 
facilitate any attempt to escape, but because they 
knew he did not wish to escape. He wanted to be 
tried and defend and justify his course. I happened 



"MY DEAD HEEO." 239 

to be in Washington for a few hours at that time, 
and as I had been told by Kev. Dr. Hall more than 
once that Mr. Stanton spoke of me very kindly, he 
encouraged me to see him about any matter I 
thought proper in Mr. Davis' case. 

1 went to see Mr. Stanton. He had recently lost 
his son and had been deeply distressed — softened one 
would think ; I hoped so. I was admitted. 

A bow and nothing more. 

I began by expressing my thanks to him for al- 
lowing me to visit Mr. Davis, and that as I was in 
town, I thought it would not be uninteresting to him 
to hear a report about Mr. Davis. 

Not a word in reply. 

I gradually approached the subject of Mr. Davis' 
health, and that without the least danger of any 
kind as to his safe imprisonment he might enj©y 
some privileges, especially the liberty of the fort, or 
there was danger of his health failing. 

The silence was broken. 

" It makes no difference what the state of the 
health of Jeff Davis is. His trial will soon come on, 
no doubt. Time enough till that settles it." 

It settled it in my leaving the presence of that 
man. 

BAILED. 

But the time came for his release. The way he 
conducted himself just showed the man, whom no 



240 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

distress could put down nor a glimpse of hope could 
unduly excite. He had seen too much and had 
placed his all in higher hands than man's. 

We brought him to the Spotswood and then to 
the custom-house. There the trial was to take 
place. We were in a carriage, the people, and espe- 
ciall}'' the colored people, testifying their sympathy. 
Mr. Davis was greatly touched by this. 

All know that the proceedings in court were very 
brief. 

Mr. Davis stood erect, looking steadily upon the 
judge, but without either defiance or fear. He 
was bailed, and the first man to go on his bond was 
Horace Greeley. 

Our carriage passed with difficulty through the 
crowd of rejoicing negroes with their tender affec- 
tion, climbing up on the carriage, shaking and kiss- 
ing his hand, and calling out, " God bless Mars 
Davis." But we got safely to the Spotswood. 

We found Mrs. Davis awaiting us, and the Hon. 
George Davis, Attorney-General of the last Cabinet, 
and a few others. 

Mr. George Davis and I just fell into each other's 
arms with tears in our eyes. 

THANKSGIVING. 

But Mr. Davis turned to me : " Mr. Minnigerode, 
you have been with me in my sufferings, and com- 




JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

(Taken just after his release from prison.) 



" MY DEAD HERO." 241 

forted and strengthened me with your prayers, is it 
not right that we now once more should kneel down 
together and return thanks ? " 

There was not a dry eye in the room. 

Mrs. Davis led the way into the adjoining room, 
more private ; and there, in the deeply-felt prayer 
and thanksgiving, closed the story of Jefferson Davis' 
prison life. 

His end has come and silence reigns over his 
grave. But I cannot close without referring to Mr. 
Davis' home life, just in a few words, for delicate re- 
gard for the feelings of the living, forbids me to draw 
the vail from that sacred spot. It was a bright, 
happy home, in the midst of our trials and dangers. 
He shone there in his best light, his gentle, court- 
eous, loving character, sustained by the truest wife 
in all his trials and sorrows, sharing them and bear- 
ing them with a constancy and loving bravery, such 
as is the glorious privilege of womanhood. Where- 
ever the memory of the " dead hero " is revived in 
the hearts of his people, there stands beside him, 
and will ever be loved and honored that noble wo- 
man, the ivi/e of Jefferson Davis. 



16 



AN AMERICAN TO BE PROUD OF. 

BY COL. CHARLES MARSHALL, 
Member of General R. E. Lee's Staff. 

THE last time I saw Mr. Davis was at a memorial 
meeting in Richmond in honor of his distin- 
guished associate, Robert E. Lee, and to-night is 
the first opportunity I have had of giving voice to my 
undying respect and veneration for him. I wish to 
say something to defend him from the assaults made 
upon him, and to vindicate his right to the place 
he holds in the hearts of the Southern people, and 
which he will hold as long as a Southern heartbeats. 
The course of the Federal Government toward 
Mr. Davis has caused him to become the representa- 
tive of the people of the Confederate States, and of 
those who held their views, in a much broader sense 
than he might otherwise have been. The people of 
the South, while agreeing in the main in assigning 
to Mr. Davis the foremost place among Confederate 
statesmen, and without dissent assigning to him the 
first rank as a patriot, a pure and disinterested 
leader and a fearless representative of their princi- 
ples, differed in their opinion as to the general policy 
of the Confederate Government under his adminis- 
tration. But the sight of Mr. Davis in chains, and 
242 



AN AMERICAN TO BE PEOUD OF. 243 

pursued with all the inventions of envy, hatred and 
malice, and all uncharitableness effaced these differ- 
ences, and the Southern people accepted him with 
one consent as the representative of their cause. 

Thus it came to pass that the policy of the Fed- 
eral Government more than anything else helped to 
keep in the memory of the people the exciting sub- 
jects connected with the war, and to minister to the 
fierce and vindictive passions that the war had kin- 
dled. The Northern people came to regard Mr. Da- 
vis most unjustly as a political sinner above all other 
sinners, and to the people of the South he became 
more fully than he had been during the war, and 
more fully, perhaps, than he would have been under 
different circumstances after the war, the representa- 
tive of Southern views, of Southern opinion and of 
Southern regret. 

On the one hand, the imprisonment of Mr. Davis, 
the threat of an ignominious death, the false charges 
made against him, the vile calumnies heaped upon 
him, turned upon him the full force of Northern pre- 
judice and passion. On the other hand, his sufferings, 
his persecution, and above all his high and unshaken 
courage, turned toward him the ardent sympathy 
and love of his generous fellow-citizens of the South. 

As we stand to-day beside his open grave it can- 
not be inappropriate to consider for a moment the 
title of Mr. Davis to the place that he holds in the 



244 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

hearts and minds of the Southern people, and in 
passing to inquire whether the judgment against him 
pronounced by ahnost all the people of the North is 
warranted by the facts. 

From the beginning of those unhappy days of 
blood and strife it has been the custom of Northern 
speakers and writers to represent the people of the 
South as having been led astray by their political 
leaders, and to have undertaken to destroy the old 
Union and to create an independent government for 
themselves under some sort of compulsion, and to 
speak of Mr. Davis as the leader. Nothing could 
be further from the truth. If ever there was a 
spontaneous movement of any people, that of the 
Southern people became such a movement when the 
proclamation of President Lincoln, of April 16, 
1861, presented the real issue to their astonished 
view. That proclamation and the hostile measures 
toward the South which quickly followed it forced 
the most reluctant to admit to themselves what they 
had long refused to believe — that the real issue be- 
tween the people of the South and those into whose 
hands the control of federal power had fallen involved 
the continued existence of constitutional government 
for the States of the South, indeed, for all the States, 
and the maintenance of rights older than the Consti- 
tution, older than the Union, and higher and more 
sacred than either the Union or the Constitution. 



AN AMERICAN TO BE PROUD OF. 245 

In such an emergency and with such vital inter- 
ests at stake, they greatly mistake the character of 
the Southern people who suppose that they needed 
to be led or driven to meet the advancing storm of 
battle as it rolled down upon them. It is safe to say 
that up to the middle of April, 1862, the greater 
part of the preparations for war had been made by 
the States, or by the spontaneous action of the peo- 
ple themselves. It will thus be seen that so far is it 
from the truth that Mr. Davis was in any sense the 
author or leader of the secession movement, he was 
selected by the people as best fitted by his ability, 
his experience, his fidelity to principle, his tried 
courage and his exalted character to lead a move- 
ment of the people in a time of imminent public 
danger. 

It is as the trusted leader in the cause I have de- 
scribed that Mr. Davis possessed and deserved, in the 
midst of the most arduous labors, the most perplex- 
ing cares, the greatest dangers, the sorest trials, the 
love and confidence of the great body of the South- 
ern people, including the most eminent commanders 
of their armies, and it is as such a leader in such a 
cause that he has this day gone to his grave followed 
by the undying gratitude and veneration of all for 
whom he endured and dared so much. There is 
nothing in his life and history to impair his title to 
that gratitude and veneration. If it be treason to 



246 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

prefer constitutional liberty and those rights which 
are as the breath of life to men of our race to terri- 
torial greatness and material wealth, then Mr. Davis 
was a traitor, and so, please God, may every Ameri- 
can be whenever that constitutional liberty and 
those ancient rights shall be again put in jeopardy 
by enemies at home or abroad. In his life and pub- 
lic services before the war there is everything to 
make us proud of our dead leader. 

If devotion to the public service, stainless integ- 
rity, great capacity for affairs and spotless purity of 
life can entitle a public man to respect and esteem, 
the career of Mr. Davis while connected with the 
government of the United States, whether as a sol- 
dier or statesman, is an example which no friend of 
his country would like to have neglected or forgotten. 

I have called your attention to one or two only of 
the reasons why we reverence the memory of Mr. 
Davis. With his death all prejudice should pass 
away — in his grave should be buried all animosities, 
and by the side of that grave all men should take a 
vow that in the service of the Government and the 
Union they will bring cheerfully and. gladly, as far 
as lies in their power, the fidelity, the truth, the 
faith, the courage and the endurance of him whose 
name we are here to-night to honor. Who is there 
that is not proud to be the countryman of such a 
man, who was faithful to the last ? " 



w 



ADDRESS AND TRIBUTE.* 

BY GENERAI. FITZHUGH LEE, 
Governor of Virginia. 

HEN the messenger of Death, flying with 
electric wing from the " Crescent City " to 
Virginia's capital, brought to us his recent 
sad tidings, the hand of mourning touched the heart- 
strings of our people, and Ihey are still vibrating 
with genuine grief to the accompanying voice of the 
mother Commonwealth — " How hath the mighty 
fallen." 

A PICTURE OF OUE SOKEOW. 

Aye, a shadow has been cast over our plains and 
valleys ; our rivers roll troubled to the sea ; the 
covering cloak of gloom has to'erspread our towns 
and cities ; sorrow's cloud has tipped our mountain- 
tops. Virginia weeps for Jefferson Davis ! How 
appropriate is her lamentation ! Bound as she has 
been to constitutional government from the early 

*In response to our request that he prepare an article specially for this 
book, General Lee writes that he regrets, on account of numerous engage- 
ments, that it would be impossible for him to prepare anything in time, 
but he kindly sends us the address, with some changes and additions, 
which he delivered in the Academy of Music, Eichmond, Va^ on Decem- 
ber 21st, 1889, at a meeting held to induce Mrs. Davis to select Eichmond 
as the final burial-place of Mr. Davis. Publishers. 

247 



248 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

formation of the republic by the sword of Washing- 
ton, the pen of Jefferson, the voice of Henry, the 
wisdom of Mason, and the efforts of Madison, in and 
out of the Federal Convention that constructed the 
Constitution, and mixed with the very marrow of 
her bones is the knowledge that in constructing that 
instrument in Philadelphia, in a body presided over 
by one of her sons, and in its ratification by her 
afterwards, there was no denial of her right to with- 
draw from the Union then formed when she should 
decide to do so ; and believing, too, in that sentence 
of the Declaration of Independence, drafted by 
another son, that it is the right of the people " to 
alter or abolish any form of government " that 
becomes, in their opinion, destructive to "life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and " institute 
a new government," Virginia was in thorough ac- 
cord with the constitutional construction of which 
Mr. Davis was so conspicuous a defender. 

It was easy then in those days of '61, for Virginia 
to exclaim, " Whither thou goest I will go, and 
where thou lodgest I will lodge ; thy people shall be 
my people, and thy God my God ! " 

WE WERE HIS PEOPLE. 

To-night this splendid assemblage, in gathering to 
pay homage to his memory, speaks in no uncertain 
tones to the country that our people to the end were 



AN ADDRESS AND TRIBUTE. 249 

his people, and that the God who looks down from 
His throne of mercy beyond the blue dome above, 
and binds up the broken hearts of the sorrowing wife 
and children, is the same God to whom we bow in 
humble submission to this exercise of His divine 
will. 

WHY SHE HONORS HIM. 

Do you ask me if Virginia honors Davis ? Ask 
her if she admires courage in a soldier, patriotism in 
a representative, conscientiousness in a Cabinet 
officer, integrity in a senator, fearless fidelity in a 
ruler, and unaffected piety in all that constitutes 
a Christian gentleman ! 

If Kentucky produced this hero, we do not forget 
that she was the daughter of Virginia. If Missis- 
sippi was his adopted State, we remember she is 
Virginia's sister, chained to her by the loving links 
of a mighty past, bound by the holy memories of 
the present, and united heart to heart in the great 
future unrolling before us. 

WITHOUT BOUNDS. 

As Dr. Hoge so eloquently expressed it on our 
memorial day, "there should be no geographical 
boundaries to the qualities which constitute noble 
manhood." " In seven-fold glory Hope spans the 
arch of Heaven, and weaves chaplets for the tomb," 
says another. Let that same Hope leap geographi- 



250 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS- 

cal limits, and teach the American people to admire 
an American who measured up to the full height of 
all that constitutes a noble man. 

HIS SERVICES TO THE COUNTRY. 

Cannot the North, South, East, and West remem- 
ber him when, as an officer of dragoons, his life was 
freely exposed for his country in the Indian wars ? 
Is not the heart of the whole republic big enough 
to throb with pride when the picture is presented of 
his charging at the head of his Mississippians, and 
planting, amid a storm of shot and shell, the Stars 
and Stripes on the grand plaza of Monterey ? Can- 
not his fame be trumpeted as an inheritance to all 
sections when he is portrayed bursting with fiery 
fury through the Mexican Lancers at Buena Vista, 
carrying proudly to victory the star-spangled banner, 
when he reddened the burning sands of old Mexico 
with his blood ? 

Does not all this, to use Mr. Davis' very words in 
referring to the battles of the Revolution, " form a 
monument to the common glory of our common 
country ? " 

Did not his splendid administration of the port- 
folio of war in Franklin Pierce's Cabinet redound to 
the credit and renown of the United States ? 

Was not his advocacy and introduction of new 
systems of tactics, iron gun-carriages, rifle-muskets 



ADDRESS AND TRIBUTE. 251 

and pistols, as well as the " Minnie ball," and the 
strengthening of the defences on the sea-coast and 
frontier, productive of benefit to the whole repubhc? 

SECTIONAL HATE SHOULD PERISH. 

Perish, then, the sectional hate in the narrow 
mind of the mover of the resolution that he alone 
should be excluded from the benefits of the Mexican 
pension act, for well could Mr. Davis reply to him 
as Uncle Toby said to the fly, "Go, little wretch, 
there is room in the world for you and I." 

Away, too, forever, with the pitiful prejudice in 
the heart of the man who ordered his name to be 
chiselled from the stone which commemorated his 
successful efforts in erecting a bridge across the Po- 
tomac above Washington. What matters it now to 
the people of the South, if, after all he did to pro- 
mote the glory of the United -States, that there is 
not magnanimity enough left to conform to the usual 
custom of putting at half-mast the flag over the 
department of the government he did so much to 
adorn, so long as the flag of their affection floats so 
high above such action, and i^ so richly draped in 
the habiliments of mourning at his death ? 

PASSION DISPELS REASON. 

I know when the passions of men are inflamed 
reason departs ; I know amid the clash of arms the 
laws are silent ; I know when blood is spilt human 



252 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

hyenas roar ; but does all this prevent a civilized 
world from shuddering at the recital of the horrors 
of the inquisition or the terrors of the French Revo- 
lution ? 

I pray that the curtain of oblivion may be rung 
down to prevent future ages, when looking upon the 
great four-year drama of the past, from seeing the 
blood-stain upon the shield of a great government, 
placed there, in the nineteenth century by the hands 
of a few men, some of whom, if reports are true, 
have already been visited by the power of an aveng- 
ing God. But so long as the sun rolls on in flaming 
splendor, bringing to light the innumerable mys- 
teries of life ; so long as the moon gilds the grassy 
slope and the wild ravine ; so long as there is a rest- 
less sea, and the stars of heaven guide the traveler 
on his way, so long will the finer feelings of noble 
women and brave men quiver with shame when the 
finger of past history points to the murder of Wirtz ; 
the suspension of an innocent woman in mid-air, 
when the rope was closing around the neck of Mrs. 
Surratt ; and to that memorable 23d of May, 1865, 
when the cold, rough, rattling iron shackles were 
placed upon the limbs of Jefferson Davis. 

MR. DAVIS' IMPRISONMENT. 

The sea of oblivion cannot wash out that scene 
in the underground casemate at Fortress Monroe, 



ADDRESS AND TRIBUTE. 253 

nor can the ears shut out the voice as he exclaimed, 
" My God ! You cannot have been sent to bind me ! 
The war is over. I have no longer any country but 
America, and it is for the honor of America that I 
plead against this degradation. Kill me, kill me, 
rather than inflict on my people through me this 
insult." Sorry am I for the soldier who had to obey 
his orders, but may God forgive the man who issued 
them. I never can ! 

ANOTHER SCENE, 

But let us change the scene. It is the next day, 
and Washington, the capital city of the United 
States, is in holiday attire. Two hundred thousand 
armed men are marching in review before the Chief 
Magistrate of the republic. Conquering banners are 
fluttering in the sunlight of peace ; bayonets no lon- 
ger bristle ; the rifle's barrel is empty ; the point of 
the sword is turned to the scabbard ; the hearts of 
bronzed and brave veterans beat with happiness at 
the thought of the old mother at the family fireside, 
whose lips were alreadj^ trembling to greet the sol- 
dier son's safe return from the war ; peace and joy 
reign in Washington ! Go to your homes. Oh, sol- 
diers of the Union ; there is an undivided country 
stretching from lake to gulf, from ocean to ocean. 
Tell your people of the brave men who were foemen 
worthy of your steel upon the blood-stained fields of 



254 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

conflict, who fought and lost without sacrificing their 
own honor or your self-respect. But whisper it low 
that the revenge of Government has been settled 
upon the one man who at that hour lay guarded by 
sentinels within his prison doors and by soldiers on 
the watch-towers without, but whose courage was so 
lofty that the harsh clank of the chain broke against 
it in vain. 

There were many in the ranks of those heavy bat- 
talions even at that time who would have averted 
such treatment to a prisoner of war if they could 
have done so. 

CHARGED WITH HERESY AND TREASON. 

But once again, let us change the scene. Stand 
forth for trial, Jefferson Davis. Upon your shoulder 
alone shall be placed a violated Constitution, the 
heresy of secession, and the ruby garment of treason. 
Let the victim be brought forth and let him have 
the form of a trial, and then let him die the death of 
a traitor. And lo ! there he stands, clothed in the 
full robes of his Confederate faith, for no one knows 
better than he where the powers of the General 
Government should end and the reserved rights of 
the States begin. But the trial must proceed, for an 
hundred thousand dollars of blood-money had been 
offered for his head, and posterity must be taught 
that treason is odious and punishable with death. 
The party in power in the United States Senate and 



ADDRESS AND TEIBUTE. 255 

House of Representatives were eager and impatient 
and on the 25th day of September, 1865, called, by 
resolution, on the President, to know what was the 
matter. The reports of the Secretary of War and 
the Attorney-General were submitted, stating that 
while Virginia was the proper place to hold the 
court, it was not possible then to hold a peaceable 
United States court there, and Chief-Justice Chase 
said he would not hold court in a district under 
martial law. 

AN UNWILLINGNESS TO PROSECUTE. 

Later on, on the 10th of April, 1866, the Judiciary 
Committee of the House thought there was no reason 
why the trial should not be at once proceeded with, 
and on the 8th of May, 1866, a grand jury of the 
United States at Norfolk— Judge Underwood pre- 
siding—found an indictment ibr treason. On the 
5th of June, at the session of the court held there, 
Mr. Davis's counsel begged that he be tried without 
delay, but the Government, it is said, was not ready. 
A year afterwards he was admitted to bail, and in 
December, 1868, a nolle proseqid was entered. 

NO LAW TO CONVICT. 

Why this unwillingness to prosecute? Ah, my 
countrymen, would I could say it proceeded from a 
forgiving Christian spirit in the bosom of those in 
power, but the stern cold facts tell us it was because 



256 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSOX DAVIS. 

the Government did not dare to test the case before 
a court of justice, for there is not a single line in the 
Constitution of the United States which prohibits 
the withdrawal of a State from the American Union, 
and there were still enough jurists learned in the 
law and constitutional lawyers profound in the con- 
struction of the Government left in the land to say 
so. And yet Mr. Davis never was a secessionist 
per se, but resigned his seat in the Senate reluctantly^, 
hoping to the last that peace, not war, would be the 
country's fate. Indeed in his first message to the 
Confederate Congress he spoke of secession as a ne- 
cessity, not a choice. 

THE GOVERNOR'S PERORATION. 

Such is the man. Ladies and gentlemen, the 
capital city of the Confederacy remembers this even- 
ing. For four years he was a familiar figure on our 
streets, in his executive office, and on horseback as 
he rode around the lines of fire then circling the city. 

When the ship of the new republic was launched 
he was called to the command and was with her 
" rocked in the cradle of the deep." Storms of war 
burst upon her deck before her machinery was even 
put in motion ; but through the thunder's roar, when 
tlifC cordage was rent, when the breakers were dash- 
ing against her, when despair was visible upon the 
faces of some of the crew, and when she began to 
settle and sink amid the lurid flashing of the light- 



ADDRESS AND TRIBUTE. 257 

ning, the captain was seen standing calm, heroic, 
resolute, grand in all the glory of a man, grasping 
with a firm hand the helm as she sank down, down, 
in the sea of eternity. 

Within the bosom of Virginia repose the ashes of 
great men whose lips and lives have taught us tp 
love the Commonwealth. 

She proudly numbers the graves of Presidents 
of the Republic. The Father of his country lies 
buried where the majestic Potomac sweeps in grace- 
ful curve upon the shores of Mt. Vernon. 

The grave of the distinguished author of the 
" Declaration of Independence " is found where the 
Little Mountain rears its proud head from the beauti- 
ful plains of Albemarle. The Sage of Montpelier, 
" the father of the Constitution," is resting quietly at 
its old homestead, while the remains of two others 
lie in beautiful Hollywood, near this city, where the 
waters of the James musically rolling from rock to 
rock are forever murmuring an eternal requiem. 

Virginia, holding in her loving embrace the sacred 
graves of five Presidents of the United States, opens 
wide her arms, and asks that she may be permitted 
to guard the last resting-place of the President of 
the Confederate States. 

Here let the soldier sleep whose sword flashes no 

longer in the forefront of battle. 

Here let the orator be buried upon whose lips 
17 



258 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

audiences were once suspended magically as if by 
golden chains. 

Here let the statesman rest, watched over and 
guarded by the city that ever received his loving 
attention. 

Here let the chieftain be brought and buried in 
May, when a monument is to be unveiled to one of 
his army commanders, when Nature spreads her 
carpet of green, when in the aisles of the orchard the 
blossoms are drifting and " the tulip's pale stalk in 
the garden is lifting a goblet of gems to the sun." 
And here too let us erect a monument that will 
stand in lofty and lasting attestation to tell our chil- 
dren's children of our love for the memory of Jeffer- 
son Davis. 



REMINISCENCES 

BY UNITED STATES SENATOR REAGAN, 
Member of the Davis Cabinet. 

I HAVE had a personal acquaintance with Mr. 
Davis for thirty-two years. I have known him 
in the domestic circle as the most genial and 
lovable man I ever knew. I have been with him 
around the council board and witnessed the great 
care and ability with which he considered great 
public questions. I have been with him on the bat- 
tle-field, and have seen the calm courage with which 
he faced the chances of death. I have been with 
him in the hours of victory and of triumph, and 
never saw him unduly elated. I have been with 
him in defeat and disaster, and never saw him un- 
duly depressed. The people he served respected him 
for his virtues and integrity. They admired him for 
his ability and devotion to duty and to them. They 
reverenced him for the grandeur and nobility of his 
character. And they mourn his death with un- 
feigned sorrow. 

The public had the impression that Mr. Davis was 
an austere and arbitrary man, when just the reverse 
was the case. He had two characters — one for pub- 
lic affairs and one for his personal and private rela- 

259 



260 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

tions. He was not hasty at forming conclusions, and 
was ever ready to receive suggestions from his 
friends and political advisers. I remember well the 
first Cabinet meeting I attended. Mr. Davis then 
informed his advisers that he wanted us to be as 
frank with him as he would be with us. In the 
preparation of his messages to Congress he invited 
the fullest and freest discussion of the subjects 
treated. I remember well one of his favorite re- 
marks, and that was, "If a paper can't stand the 
criticism of its friends, it will be in a bad way when 
it gets into the hands of its enemies." I have 
always remembered that remark, because it has fre- 
quently been my guide in matters of legislation. 

In the organization of the various departments 
under the Confederacy, Mr. Davis, at one of the 
Cabinet meetings, informed us that we would be 
called upon to select the men whom we needed to 
assist us, and he would appoint them. But he im- 
pressed upon us the fact that we would be held re- 
sponsible for the conduct and efficiency of the ap- 
pointees. Mr. Davis was a civil service reformer in 
a certain sense. He was firm in his conclusions and 
patient in his investigations. In his domestic life 
he was amiable and gentle, but in official life he 
knew no word but duty. I remember very well our 
last formal Cabinet meeting. It was after we had 
left Richmond, and were traveling through the 



EEMINISCENCES. 261 

southern portion of North Carolina. It was just 
near the border of the two States, North and South 
Carolina. It was under a big pine-tree that we 
stopped to take some lunch. Mr. Trenholm, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, was absent. He had 
been taken sick at Charlotte, and after trying to 
keep up with us for about twenty miles he gave out 
and tendered his resignation. The resignation of Mr. 
Trenholm was discussed, and it was finally accepted, 
and I was selected to take charge of his ofiice in 
conjunction with that of Postmaster-General. I re- 
member on that occasion Mr. Davis said, when I 
requested to be relieved from that additional duty : 
"You can look after that without much trouble. We 
have concluded that there is not much for the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury to do, and there is but little 
money left for him to steal." That was in April, 
1865. 

Some time after that George Davis, the Attorney- 
General, asked Mr. Davis' advice about retiring from 
the Cabinet. The Attorney-General said he wanted 
to stand by the Confederacy, but his family and his 
property were at Wilmington, and he was in doubt 
as to where his duty called him. " By the side of 
your family," promptly responded Mr. Davis. After 
the Attorney-General left us there were only four 
members of the Cabinet left to continue the journey 
to Washington, Ga., which was our destination. We 



262 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

put up at Abbeville, S. C, for the night, because we 
were informed that a lot of Yankee cavalry were in 
Washington, Ga. At that point Benjamin said he 
proposed to leave the country and get as far away 
from the United States as possible. Mr. Davis asked 
him how he proposed to get down to the coast. 
" Oh," replied Benjamin, " there is a distinguished 
Frenchman whose name and initials are the same as 
mine, and as I can talk a little French I propose to 
pass myself off as the French Benjamin." 

While passing through South Carolina I was par- 
ticularly struck with Mr. Davis' generosity. We 
were passing a little cabin on the road, and we 
stopped to get a drink of water. A woman, poorly 
clad, came out to serve us. She recognized Mr. 
Davis, and informed him that her only son was 
named after him. It was a very warm day, and the 
cool water was very refreshing. Mr. Davis took 
from his pocket the last piece of coin he possessed 
and gave it to the woman and told her to give it to 
his namesake. At our next stopping-place we com- 
pared our cash accounts, and Mr. Davis had a few 
Confederate notes, which was every cent of money 
possessed in this world. 

Mr. Davis was one of the few men who measured 
the full force of the war. He from the first con- 
tended that it was likely to last a number of years 
instead of a few months, as many persons predicted. 



KEMINISCENCES. 263 

It was at first proposed to enlist an army of two or 
three hundred thousand men for six months, for by 
that time it was supposed that the war would be 
over. Mr. Davis promptly disposed of that sugges- 
tion by declaring that it would take at least a year 
to organize an efficient army, as soldiers could not 
be made in a few days. He said it would be wiser 
to establish a smaller army — one that we could af- 
ford to arm and equip. From the first he main- 
tained that it would be a long and bloody war, but 
many Southern men differed with him, and the re- 
sult was we were obliged to pass that terrible act of 
conscription to keep our men in the service. 

There is another question that I wish to touch 
upon in this connection. I have frequently referred 
to the question of his disabilities, and we have dis- 
cussed the subject from various standpoints. Invari- 
ably Mr. Davis declared that he could not conscien- 
tiously ask to have his disabilities removed, for he 
could not induce himself to believe that he had done 
wrong. He was firm in his convictions on that 
point, and nothing could move him. 

Mr. Davis was greatly misjudged in many ways. 
He was the most devout Christian I ever knew, and 
the most self-sacrificing man. When his plantation 
was in danger of being seized and the property de- 
stroyed, he was urged by friends to send a force of 
men to protect it. " The President of the Confeder- 



264 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

acy," he responded, "cannot afford to use public 
means to preserve private interests, and I cannot 
employ men to take care of my property." And so 
when his hill property in Hinds County was threat- 
ened, and all his books and papers were in danger of 
destruction, he again resisted all persuasions of 
friends to have them protected. 

The memory of his services, of his virtues, and of 
his vicarious sufferings demand this alike from the 
Christian sentiment and from the manhood of those 
he served so faithfully. And it is matter of special 
gratification that the general tone of the greater part 
of the press of the country. North and South, have 
treated kindly the memory of this illustrious man. 

When General Grant suffered in affliction, the 
people of the South as well as North gave him their 
sincere sympathy. When he died the people of the 
South, as well as of the North, mourned his death. 
The same feeling of respect for genius, for greatness 
and for worth, and the same feeling of Christian 
charity for the dead, and of sympathy for the be- 
reaved who survive, has shown itself North as well 
as South for Mr. Davis. 

This is as it should be, and will have its influence 
in restoring that more perfect fraternity of feeling 
which is so necessary and so important to the wel- 
fare and happiness of the whole country. 

It is fitting in this connection that I should add 



REMINISCENCES 265 

the following dispatch and letter, published in the 
Washington Star of December 12, 1889, showing Mr. 
Davis' participation in this feeling of charity and fra- 
ternity : 

A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER. 

When General Grant was dying at Mount Mc- 
Gregor the Boston Glohe instructed its New Orleans 
correspondent to interview Jefferson Davis. Mr. 
Davis was not seen personally, but a few days later 
he penned the following letter : 

" Dear Sir— Your request in behalf of a Boston journalist for me to 
prepare a criticism of Gen. Grant's military career cannot be complied 
with for the following reasons : 

" 1. Gen. Grant is dying, 

" 2. Though he invaded our country, it was with an open hand, and, as 
far as I know, he abetted neither arson nor pillage, and has since the war, 
I believe, showed no malignity to Confederates either of the military or 
ci'^il service. 

" Therefore, instead of seeking to disturb the quiet of his closing hours 
I would, if it were in my power, contribute to the peace of his mind and 
the comfort of his body. 

[Signed] "Jefferson Davis." 

The people of the Southern States have manifested 
their deep sorrow for the death of Mr. Davis by mes- 
sages of condolence, by resolutions of public meet- 
ings, by the action of municipal governments, by 
proclamations of mayors of cities and Governors of 
States, by resolutions of legislative assemblages, by 
draping public and private buildings in mourning, 



266 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVI3. 

through the columns of the newspapers, by appro- 
priate religious services throughout the South on the 
day of his funeral, and by the suspension of all busi- 
ness on the day of his funeral. 

Such honors have never before been shown to the 
leader of a lost cause, and few of the successful he- 
roes of the world have ever received such honors as 
have been paid to the memory of Mr. Davis. The 
hero and leader of a lost cause, after one of the most 
stupendous struggles known to history, denied the 
right of citizenship, powerless to confer benefits on 
others, he still enjoyed the unbounded respect and 
confidence and love and gratitude of the people he 
served with so much ability and fidelity and courage. 
And while in law an exile among the people who 
loved him so much, he bore imprisonment, and 
chains, and deprivation of political rights, and the 
bitter denunciation of his enemies, with a manly pa- 
tience and Christian fortitude never before shown by 
mortal man under such circumstances except in the 
case of General Robert E. Lee. But his trials and 
sufferings were greater than those which fell upon 
our great general. Hannibal, the great Carthagenian 
general, and Napoleon, the conqueror of Europe, 
when defeat and disaster fell upon them, complained 
much of their misfortunes. But Jefferson Davis has 
borne his misfortunes in dignified and uncomplaining 
silence. It may be permitted to his friends to say 



EEMINISCENCES. 267 

that in every position he filled in life, his fidelity 
commanded respect and his ability compelled admi- 
ration; whether as a young officer of the United 
States army, as a successful planter, as a student of 
the sciences during the years of his retirement from 
the public service, as a member of the United States 
House of Representatives, as a colonel in the Mexi- 
can War whose genius and courage won the victory 
of Buena Vista, as Secretary of War in perfecting 
the organization of the army and otherwise improv- 
ing the service, in directing the surveys for the Pa- 
cific Railroad, in aiding in the extension of the wings 
of the national Capitol and in the construction of 
the Smithsonian Institution and constructing the 
water-works of the national capital, and in the im- 
provement of the public grounds of that city ; or as 
Senator of the United States, where he showed him- 
self the peer of our greatest statesmen and debaters, 
or as President of the Confederate States, where he 
did all that human skill and courage could do to 
sustain the cause in whose service he was engaged. 
The glories of all these achievements, however, it 
seems to me, were surpassed by the patience and for- 
titude with which he met the disastrous results of 
defeat. 

As illustrative of ■ Mr. Davis' self-denial, of his 
sympathy for the poor and afflicted, and for the 
wounded and disabled soldiers who suffered in a 



268 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

common cause with him, I give an extract from a 
dispatch sent by- Henry W. Grady, editor of the 
Atlanta Constitution, in answer to a dispatch sent to 
him from the city of New York : 

To the Editor of the World: 

"Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 6. — I thank you heartily for 
your dispatch. Three or four times in the past ten 
years, touched by Mr. Davis' known poverty, we 
have started to make a fund for him, and once had a 
considerable amount subscribed without his knowl- 
edge. Each time he gratefully but firmly declined, 
saying that so many widows and orphans of our sol- 
diers and so many disabled veterans themselves were 
poor and in need of the necessaries of life, that all 
generous offerings had best be directed to them and 
to their betterment. He has grown steadily poorer, 
and I fear leaves his family nothing." 

This is not a proper occasion for the discussion of 
the question of the righteousness of the cause which 
he served with such fidelity and ability, and for 
which he has suffered so much. That must be de- 
ferred to other occasions and probably to other times. 
But his friends may safely leave his fame to the un- 
impassioned verdict to be rendered by the historian 
of the future. 



ADDRESS. 

BY GOVERNOR J. B. GORDON. 

* State of Geokgia, Executive Department. 
Atlanta, Ga., January 22, 1890. 
R. H. Woodward & Co., Baltimore, Md. 

Gentlemen:— Yonr letter received. The preparation of an article for 
your "Reminiscences of Jefferson Davis" would require more time than 
it is possible for me now to devote to it. It would, indeed, be a labor of 
love, if I were able to accomplish it, but my time is so completely pre- 
occupied that I cannot attempt it. 

Very truly yours, 

J. B. Gordon. 

WITHOUT any time for preparation, or one 
moment's consecutive thought, you must al- 
low me to speak as the spirit of the occasion 
may prompt. 

To me, as to you, this is one of the saddest, and 
yet one of the sweetest and proudest occasions of all 
my life. Saddest, because it is the occasion upon 
which we have carried to his last resting-place the 
great chieftain whom we loved, followed and hon- 
ored. Sweetest, because we have laid him to rest 
after "life's fitful fever," with all the honors we 
could bestoAv, embalmed in the esteem and bound- 

* In response to our invitation to Governor Gordon to prepare something 
specially for the book, he sends us the above letter, and encloses the speech 
which he delivered in New Orleans on December 6, 1889. — Fuhs, 

269 



270 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

less affections of a great and grateful people. 
Proudest to me, because it was my good fortune to 
participate in giving to that grand man, dead as he 
was, the tribute of my respect and love ; and now 
the privilege of taking you all to my heart and say- 
ing, as he would have said with the last lisp of his 
tongue, God bless you, my fellow sufferers. 

It was my great privilege to know Mr. Davis 
well, although, as stated on another occasion, I saw 
him but twice in that eventful period from 1861 to 
the autumn of 1865. I saw him on the battle-field 
of Manassas, as he rode in triumph, with the stars 
and bars of the Confederacy floating in the white 
smoke of the battle, and with the shouts of his vic- 
torious legions ringing in his ears. 

The next time I saw him was in prison at For- 
tress Monroe. It is no exaggeration to say that he 
rose to grander height as prisoner of State, as self- 
poised and unbending he bore his misfortunes, and 

WORE HIS SHACKLES FOR ALL HIS PEOPLE. 

I have followed his course and marked his career 
from that hour to this with an unfaltering faith that 
he would neither lower this high standard nor betray 
the holy trust which he carried in his person. I never 
doubted for one moment how he would live or how 
he would die, and I have not been disappointed. 

To us, whatever it may be to mankind, it is a 



ADDEESS. 271 

glorious heritage that this Southland has produced 
so grand a vicarious sufferer. Here is a man upon 
whom the gaze of Christendom was concentrated, and 
upon whom criticism has expended all its arrows, 
and yet no blemish is found in his private character. 

It was fitting that around his bier and his body, 
sacred to us, should have been wrapped the flag that 
went down with his fall from power. But it was 
also fitting that above his dead body the stars and 
stripes of the Republic, for the honor and glory of 
which his blood was shed, should also have floated. 

Could his cold lips speak his injunction would be 
to us be true to your Confederate memories; be 
true to the past, but be true to the future of the 
Union and the Republic as well. 

The flag of the Republic, which is our flag in all 
the ages to come, was made dearer because Jefferson 
Davis fought in its defense. It is a glorious thought 
to me, as doubtless to you, that there is not a star 
upon its blue field that has not been made brighter 
by Southern courage and Southern patriotism. That 
there is not one of its red stripes that is not made 
deeper and richer by Southern blood. That there is 
not one of its white lines that has not been made 
purer, whiter and holier by Southern character in 
all public ofiices. 

Now, my countrymen, I come to the debt we owe 
the living. Mr. Davis is dead. The grief is ours, 



272 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

full and sacred. His fame belongs not only to the 
South, but to his country and to Christendom. 
Ours it is to cherish. Ours the still higher privilege 
of taking care of that memory by taking care of 
those who were 

IMPOVERISHED IN OUR CAUSE. 

I have been told since I come to New Orleans 
that his widow, following his illustrious example, de- 
clines to accept such tributes as we may choose to 
offer. 

My brothers, the reply I make is, that we did not 
ask the consent of Jefferson Davis or of his family, 
when we- put the burden upon him that led to 
shackles for our sakes, nor will we consult any one 
now, when we choose to pay the tribute due to him 
and to his children, out of our pockets. If it be 
thought best to pay it in a particular channel, all 
right, but calling God to witness the purity of mo- 
tive and consecration which we feel in this duty, we 
intend, because of our love for him as our represen- 
tative; because of our love for those who have 
shared his fate; because of our love for our own 
honor, we intend to see to it that his wife and chil- 
dren do not suffer want. 

The outside world may not appreciate it, but, so 
far as you and I are concerned, we feel that not one 
dollar of property is ours so long as his wife and his 



ADDRESS. 273 

child need our assistance. This we intend to ren- 
der because Southern manhood demands it as a tri- 
bute to the man who suffered for us. [Great ap- 
plause.] I shall not insult you by asking you if 
you are ready. 

18 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS * 

BY HON. S. TEAKIvE WALLIS, 
Member of Baltimore Bar. 

THE theme of this little volume, f in itself and 
without words, is at once a sermon and a his- 
tory. It tells of a change in the political 
institutions of a mighty nation more rapid and more 
thorough than any other which the annals of men 
record. It points to the melancholy spectacle of 
a government, founded on consent and consecrated to 
freedom, converted by the willing hands of a major- 
ity of the people whose birthright it was, into a 
despotism controlled by popular passion and sec- 
tional interests. It signalizes, by a conspicuous and 
incontestable example, the substitution of a scheme 
of arbitrary violence, for a system based on written 
constitutions and ruling and punishing only through 
its laws. More sad, a thousand-fold, than all, it 
proclaims to us — whether as cause or effect it is 
unnecessary here to discuss — the decadence of that 
high and manly spirit, that generous and wholesome 
sense of right, that love of justice and fair-play, 

*This article, written by Mr. Wallis soon after the release of Mr. 
Davis, has been kindly furnished for this volume. — [Pubs.]. 
t Prison Life of Jefferson Davis, by John J. Craven, M.D. 

274 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 275 

which animated and exalted our once noble institu- 
tions, through the first stage of their development, 
as with the inspiration of a great and living soul. 
The children are yet clinging round our knees, who 
were born before " State prisoners " were imagined 
as a possibility upon our soil, and the generation 
who preceded them — scarce half-grown even now — 
were taught the stories of the Doges' Palace, the 
Tower and the Bastille, of Olmiitz and St. Helena 
and Ham, as a warning against the wickedness of 
kings and lords, and a lesson of thankfulness to the 
good God, who had made a republic their birth- 
place. And yet, to-day, after having for five years 
seen with approval every fortress in the North 
stuffed full of men and women, dragged from their 
homes, at midnight or at mid-day, without warrant 
or authority or even form of law ; after having wit- 
nessed the infliction upon large classes of their 
neighbors and friends, of all the contumely and out- 
rage that brutality suggested to capricious and 
unbridled power, as a penalty for the exercise of 
freedom of opinion ; the masses of the Northern 
people can behold, not only without shame, but with 
rejoicing, the long imprisonment and barbarous 
personal ill treatment of one of their most prominent 
and distinguished fellow-citizens, in notorious viola- 
tion of the most rudimental of the principles, on 
which they go on vaunting, day after day, that their 



276 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

government reposes. And this too, not in the heat 
of conflict, when the best of men go sometimes mad 
with zeal or passion, but in the midst of profound 
and established peace, when those who were lately 
in arms against thfem are not only vanquished but 
crushed, and nothing stands in the way of perfect 
harmony and reconstruction but the incapacity or 
unwillingness of the victors to be either generous or 
just. 

Nor in the political antecedents or personal char- 
acter or conduct of the chief victim, upon whom 
the unmanly vengeance of the Northern people is 
thus wreaked, is there anything to excuse, or even 
furnish a reasonable pretext for so relentless a per- 
secution. There is no public man now living in the 
United States who has gone through the political 
conflicts of the last twenty years with a more stain- 
less name. As a soldier, a senator, a Cabinet 
minister of the old Union, gallant, able, active and 
efficient always, and developing those positive and 
somewhat aggressive traits of character, which pro- 
voke and stimulate antagonism and resentment, he 
never found an enemy so reckless as to question his 
patriotism or asperse his purity. Even now, shorn 
as he is of power and influence, the vanquished and 
captive chief of a ruined and, of course, unpopular 
cause, with all the personal and official animosities 
and criminations which belong to such a position 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 277 

crowding round him, there is yet to be heard among 
his constituents the first whisper of imputation upon 
his loyalty to the people who chose him as their 
leader, or his integrity in the administration of his 
office according to his judgment. Of those particu- 
lar political opinions which are now held to be his 
crime, he not only made no concealment, while he 
was in the service of the United States, but was 
their open, avowed, conspicuous champion. He was 
elected and appointed to places of honor and respon- 
sibility, with the full knowledge, on the part of both 
Government and people, that he was the uncompro- 
mising advocate of States rights, in the broad South- 
ern understanding of that term, and that, as he wrote 
to Mr. Bostick in the well-known letter of May 
14th, 1858, the honor and safety of the Southern 
people, their respect for their ancestors, and their 
regard for their posterity would require them to 
" meet, at whatever sacrifice," any issue in which the 
maintenance of those rights might be involved.* 
The resolutions introduced by him into the Senate 
of the United States in February or March, 1860, 
and in which his political creed on the vexed ques- 
tion of State sovereignty was set forth, did no more 
than place permanently upon record, the familiar 
and oft defended doctrines and principles of his 
whole public life. He was therefore as well known 

* See McCluskey's Pol. Text Book, 747. 



278 REMmiSCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

to be a secessionist at Charleston, in 1860, when 
General Butler voted fifty times to make him a can- 
didate for the Presidency, as he now is, at Fortress 
Monroe, where General Butler would gibbet him, 
without trial, to-day, for the inconceivable crime of 
secession. Of his entire and honorable freedom 
from every imputation that could justly make a 
gentleman ashamed — unless the wickedness, incom- 
prehensible to General Butler, of risking his life and 
fortune in defence of his most cherished convictions, 
be supposed to belong to that class — there can be no 
evidence more conclusive than the attempts which 
have been made under the auspices of the high 
officials of the Federal Government, to bring his 
name and person into unjust contempt, and to 
attract to him, by false and infamous charges, the 
vindictive hatred of the populace. 

The reader will recall the wretched and indecent 
fabrications transmitted by the Associated Press, 
from Washington, under the inspiration of Mr. Sec- 
retary Stanton, at the time of the capture of Mr. 
Davis, whereby the foolish and credulous were in- 
structed that "Jeff." was making his way to the 
Mississippi, with a wagon-load of gold which he had 
seized as his "private plunder, and that when taken 
prisoner he was disguised " in his wife's crinoline," 
and pretended to be a woman. Of course, the 
authors of so vulgar and paltry a defamation well 



IMPEISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 279 

knew that it would impose on no one who under- 
stood the character of Mr. Davis, or had observed 
his public or private career, and that it would turn 
to nothing in the course of time, along with the 
thousand other official slanders which had hissed 
and died during the war. But they knew, equally 
well, that it would tend to hinder, for a while, 
among the masses of the people, that respectful 
sympathy which spontaneously opens itself to the 
misfortunes of a brave and fallen foe, and that it 
would contribute its share towards preparing them 
for the wholly un-American system of persecution 
which the parties in question had already devised 
for the torment of their victim. 

And here, it may properly be observed, that there 
was one thing more than any other and perhaps 
than all others put together, in which the Cabinet 
organized by Mr. Lincoln displayed especial and re- 
markable sagacity. Indeed, in summing up their 
career as an administration, we might perhaps be 
justified in saying that it was at the foundation of 
their whole success, and stood them, throughout, in- 
stead of those high qualities of statesmanship, 
which such a crisis as the Confederate War would 
have developed in any nation less devoid of really 
great men than the Northern section of the United 
States. We refer to that perfect comprehension of 
the passions, prejudices, susceptibilities, vices, virtues, 



280 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

knowledge and ignorance of the people upon whom 
they had to practice. They knew every quiver of 
the popular pulse, and what it signified. They 
could weigh out, to a grain, the small quantity of 
truth to which the public appetite was equal, and 
they perfectly understood and measured the pre- 
ternatural extent to which the popular digestion 
could assimilate falsehood. They were masters of 
every artifice that could mystify or mislead, and of 
every trick that could excite hope, or confidence, or 
rage. They knew every common-place and clap- 
trap that would affect the popular imagination or 
temper, as familiarly and as accurately as a stage 
manager is acquainted with the oldest of his the- 
atrical properties. Understanding their part thus 
well, they played to it, with wonderful tact and ef- 
fect. They filled their armies, established their fi- 
nancial system, controlled the press and silenced 
opposition by the same universal system of ingenious 
and bold imposture. I have before me an editorial 
article of Mr. Raymond, of the New Ywk Times, ui 
which he testifies that on the night after the battle 
of Bull Run, he prepared an accurate and candid 
statement of the federal disaster, and left it at the 
office of the Telegraph, to be transmitted to the 
journal which he conducted, but that the censor of 
the War Department, to his surprise and without 
his knowledge, caused his report to be suppressed. 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 281 

and forwarded in its place the well-known telegram, 
in which the triumph of the federal arms, at all 
points, was announced in startling capitals to the de- 
lighted North. The equally notorious despatch of 
Mr. Stanton to Governor Curtin, after the battle of 
Fredericksburg, is but one out of a thousand evi- 
dences that the Carnot — as Mr. Seward called him 
— of the Lincoln Cabinet, was as notable an adept 
as his predecessor, in that ancient art, which was 
practiced w ith less impunity in the days of Ananias 
and Sapphira. 

It was not to be expected that the War Depart- 
ment of the United States, thus taught by long suc- 
cess the value of judicious falsehood, should content 
itself with seeking merely to bring into contempt 
the head of the fallen Confederate Government. 
The war, in itself so violently antagonistic to the 
whole spirit and principles of the Constitution of the 
United States, could not, of course, be conducted 
without unconstitutional means and appliances. 
Among the most iniquitous of the contrivances re- 
sorted to was the anomalous, inquisitorial tribunal, 
called the Bureau of Military Justice. A few years 
ago no man would have dared to suggest such an en- 
gine of persecution to the most unscrupulous of po- 
litical organizations in this country. If established, 
it would have collapsed in a week, under the scorn 
and indignation of a people yet uneducated by phil- 



282 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESQN DAVIS. 

anthropy in violence and usurpation. Nevertheless, 
at the close of the war, it exercised almost unlimited 
power for evil. It was the centre of all the schemes 
of hidden wickedness and mischief which consumed 
so many millions of secret service money and raised 
up and debauched such an army of spies and in- 
formers throughout the land. It had grown to mo- 
nopolize the getting up of persecutions, the organi- 
zation of military commissions, the fabrication ot 
evidence and the subornation of witnesses. Guided 
by the constitutional doctrines of Solicitor Whiting, 
the legal and military ethics of Dr. Lieber, and the 
systematized and ingenious malignity and invention 
of Judge Advocate General Holt, it could only have 
been surpassed, had Jeffreys, Vidocq and Haynau 
been revived to sit in judgment together. Had its 
plans not been thwarted, by the interposition of 
President Johnson, when the Supreme Court, under 
the most disreputable political influences, postponed, 
for a whole year, the promulgation of its opinion 
upon the constitutionality of Military Commissions, 
it would have opened a general campaign of judicial 
murder, beside which the Bloody Assizes of King 
James' Chief Justice would have lost their hitherto 
pre-eminent infamy. Under the inspiration of this 
Bureau, with the sympathetic assistance of Mr. Sec- 
retary Stanton, the well known proclamation was is- 
sued, in which Mr. Davis was charged with having 



IMPEISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 283 

been accessory to the assassination of President 
Lincoln. It was a painful feature of that abominable 
outrage, that the confidence of President Johnson 
should have been abused by his official advisers to 
the extent of inducing him, in the first moment of 
his accession, to put his name to such a paper. To 
consider even for a moment, here, whether the par- 
ties by whom the calumny was made to take an 
official shape had any grounds for suspecting it to be 
true, which the bitterest honorable enemy of Mr. 
Davis would not have scorned to examine, would be 
an insult to our readers, not less than an indignity 
to the gallant gentleman against whose life and 
honor the poisoned shaft was aimed. It is safe to 
say that not one of the conspirators at the War De- 
partment ever harbored, for an instant, a sincere be- 
lief in the truth of the charge, either before or after 
it was made. If it had been honestly started under 
the passionate influences of the troubled hour in 
which it saw the light, it would have been manfully 
disavowed when the excitement was over, and espe- 
cially after the disgraceful and utter failure of the 
attempt to maintain it, with other injurious accusa- 
tions, before the military inquisitions which decreed 
the murder of Mrs. Surratt and Captain Wirz. But 
it had done its work in filling the minds of the ig- 
norant with prejudice and stimulating the hatred 
and fanaticism of party, and to have admitted its 



2 84 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Msehood would have been to create a just reaction 
in favor of the victim. It was therefore allowed to 
stand without qualification as it was uttered, until 
the publication of the confidential correspondence 
between Mr. Holt and his agent Conover, disclosed 
not merely the perjury which had been suborned, 
but the deliberate and disgusting circumstances of 
the purchase. Then, for the first time, the head of 
the Bureau of Military Justice found himself forced 
into an attitude of defence, and was compelled to 
vindicate his integrity in the newspapers by a weak 
attempt to shift the blame upon the unsuspecting 
credulousness of his nature. It is now probably too 
late for him to escape the retributive justice of pub- 
lic and historical opinion, by pretending to punish 
the perjury-broker, whose hirelings he paid and 
used. Posterity will contemplate these incidents 
and others like them in the history of the war with 
inexpressible astonishment, that the gigantic hopes 
and wonderful resources of such a nation as this 
should have been entrusted, in the vital moment of 
its destiny, to minds so little and souls so mean. 
Nor will they, we are sorry to believe, forget that 
for rulers like these and for their doings, the respon- 
sibility, under a Republican form of Government, is 
upon the people who endure such rule. The im- 
partial times to come will hardly understand how a 
nation, which not only permitted, but encouraged its 



n O 

3 > 

5. ^ 

o 70 

3 M 




IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 285 

government to declare medicines and surgical in- 
struments contraband of war, and to destroy by fire 
and sword the habitations and food of non-com- 
batants, as well as the fruits of the earth and the 
implements of tillage, should afterwards have clam- 
ored for the blood of captive enemies, because they 
did not feed their prisoners out of their own starva- 
tion and heal them in their succorless hospitals. 
And when a final and accurate development shall 
have been made of the facts connected with the ex- 
change of prisoners between the belligerents, and it 
shall have been demonstrated, as even now it is per- 
fectly understood, that all the nameless horrors 
which are recorded of the prison-houses upon both 
sides, were the result of a deliberate and inexorable 
policy of non-exchange on the part of the United 
States, founded on an equally deliberate calculation 
of their ability to furnish a greater mass of humanity 
than the Confederacy could afford, for starvation 
and the shambles, men will wonder how it was that 
a people, passing for civilized and Christian, should 
have consigned Jefferson Davis to a cell, while they 
tolerated Edwin M. Stanton as a Cabinet minister. 

I have referred to these apparently extraneous 
matters, for the purpose of showing, upon what 
foundations the prodigal slanders were rested, by 
which the American people were induced to 
acquiesce in what we have already described as the 



286 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

un-American system of persecution to which Mr. 
Davis has been surrendered. One by one they have 
been demolished or tacitly abandoned, and it is now 
conceded upon all sides, that the only ground upon 
which the late President of the Confederate States 
has been or can be further restrained of his liberty, 
under any color of right, is the fact of his having 
been engaged in levying war against the United 
States. The act which these latter words describe 
is treason within the language of the 3d section of 
3d article of the Federal Constitution, and upon the 
applicability of that section to the case of Mr. 
Davis, depends, of course, the right to hold and try 
him for the crime which it defines. But before pro- 
ceeding to the few observations upon that point, to 
which our space and the nature of this article con- 
fines us, we cannot avoid renewing the inquiry, why 
is it that Mr. Davis has been singled out for imputed 
treason, from the millions whom the Supreme Court 
of the United States has solemnly declared to be 
as guilty as he. " All persons," says Mr. Justice 
Grier, in delivering the opinion of that tribunal, in 
the Prize cases, * " residing within this territory, 
whose property may be used to increase the 
revenues of the hostile power, are liable to be treated 
as enemies, though not foreigners. They have cast 
oflf their allegiance and made war on the Govern- 

* 2 Black, 674. 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 287 

ment and are none the less enemies because they are 
traitors." Lawyers and publicists will of course 
judge for themselves in regard to the soundness of 
the doctrine thus announced, but it conveys, at all 
events, the deliberate judgment of the highest judi- 
cial authority under the Constitution. How is it, 
then, that one man out of all these millions of 
" traitors " and " enemies " is sought to be made 
their scape-goat ? Nay, the Supreme Court have 
gone further than the language we have quoted. 
They have determined in the same eases, by the 
mouth of the same judge,* that the people of the 
South " in organizing this rebellion," " acted as 
States, (sic) claiming to be sovereign over all persons 
and property within their respective limits, and 
asserting a right to absolve their citizens from their 
allegiance to the Federal Government. Several of 
these States," adds Judge Grier, " have combined to 
form a new Confederacy, claiming to be acknowl- 
edged by the world as a sovereign State." How is 
it, then, that Mr. Davis alone is to be held as the 
representative for punishment, not only of the mil- 
lions of individual men by whom " the rebellion " 
was conducted, but also of the States whose corpor- 
ate capacity and action the Supreme Court thus 
recognizes, and of the Confederacy, to which these 
States entrusted, as their representative, the bel- 

* 2 Black, 763. 



288 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

ligerent powers and resources of the sovereignty 
which they respectively asserted ? It is simply im- 
possible that any reasonable answer can be given to 
these inquiries. That Mr. Davis had anything more 
to do with originating the Southern movement than 
hundreds of other prominent and able men, cannot 
be asserted with any respect for the truth. No 
Southern member of the Senate in 1861 was more 
anxious and ready than he for a compromise and 
pacific solution of the questions which were inflam- 
ing the public mind. No man retired from the Sen- 
ate with more unfeigned and sorrowful reluctance, 
or left behind him a more respectful appreciation of 
his honesty, sincerity, dignity and manhood. His 
valedictory moistened the eyes of those who were 
most hostile to his political movements and opinions, 
and produced a sensation which no man, who wit- 
nessed the scene, will ever forget. He was elevated 
to the Presidential chair of the new-formed Confed- 
eracy, not as the representative of extreme opinions 
or bitter feelings, but because of the respect in which 
his consistency, his honor, his single-heartedness, his 
courage and ability were held by the whole Southern 
people. With what perplexities and trials he had 
to struggle, yet with what earnestness and success 
he managed, above all things, to prevent the action 
of his government and the conduct of its armies 
from being controlled by the vindictive rancor which 



IMPKISONMENT OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 289 

the circumstances rendered so natural and so difficult 
to restrain, all who knew anything of the internal 
struggles of the Confederacy can testify. The same 
history which canonizes the successful determination 
of Lamartine, at the Hotel de Ville, to prevent the 
rising republic of 1848 from lifting the red flag anew, 
which had been drenched in the blood of the peo- 
ple, will place side by side with it the moral heroism 
of Jefferson Davis, in forbidding the black flag to be 
unfurled by any of the soldiers of the Confederate 
States against the enemies who were menacing their 
homes, institutions and freedom. 

Nor was it alone in the belligerent relations of the 
Confederacy that Mr. Davis was the representative 
of the spirit of moderation. In a contest, in which 
everything (and especially upon the weaker side) 
depended upon executive energy, concentration and 
promptness, he shrank from grasping a single power 
which was not confided to him by the Constitution. 
While the Federal Government of the United States, 
looking only to success, and regardless of the means 
by which it might be assured, went trampling to the 
right and left, over every Constitutional guaranty, 
over individual liberty and State authority alike, 
Mr. Davis persistently confined himself within the 
limits constitutionally assigned to him, determined, 
whatever might betide, that the Confederacy 

should at least not suffer at his hands the evils of 
19 



290 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

executive usurpation. There are those among the 
best friends of Mr Davis, who believe, with sadness, 
that in this he was perhaps more nice than wise, and 
that the circumstances would have justified him in 
temporarily opposing to the vigor of the despotism 
into which the Government of the United States had 
been converted by Mr. Lincoln, a corresponding 
vigor, purchased at the same cost to the Southern 
people. This, of course, resolves itself into a ques- 
tion which we shall not discuss, between regarding 
Mr. Davis as the chief of a mere revolution, or as the 
head of an organized and constitutional government. 
There is another particular, too, in which the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Davis has been exposed to the 
censure of both friends and foes, among his own 
constituents, which seems to render doubly heinous 
his selection as a victim from among the whole peo- 
ple whom he served. We refer to that peculiar 
gentleness and kindness of heart, which made it 
impossible for him to deal, in the spirit of his other- 
wise just and resolute character, with the thousand 
cases of individual and official delinquency, defect 
or misconduct which required his action. How 
much, in such a contest as the Confederate War, de- 
pends upon the inflexible maintenance of discipline 
and the relentless enforcement of official obligation, 
in every branch of the public service, civil as well as 
military, the experience of both parties to the strug- 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 291 

gle has sufficiently demonstrated. Whether they 
are in the right or not, who maintain that the stern- 
ness of Mr. Davis Avas not equal to the demands of 
his position in that regard, it is certainly true, that 
the instincts of his nature were in constant struggle 
with the harsher requirements of duty, and that the 
influence of his personal kindness was felt, not only 
among the soldiers and people of the Confederacy, 
but whenever he was able to mitigate, as to its ene- 
mies, the dread severity of war. 

Except, then, that he was the official chief and 
representative of the Confederate Government and 
people ; that by his ability, statesmanship and mod- 
eration, and the admirable official papers which 
came from his hand, he at once gave to his cause a 
position of honor and respect before the world and 
its rulers,* and elevated the American name among 
all the nations ; that his constancy and patriotism 
shared in every sacrifice and animated every effort 
of the struggle ; that his dignity and courage gave 
consolation even to despair, and have ennobled de- 
feat and captivity — except in these, there is no rea- 
son why he should not breathe the air to-day, as 
much a freeman as any other man who lifted the 
Confederate flag or fought beneath it. It were a sad 
commentary, at the best, on civilization and Chris- 
tianity, and especially upon the vaunted influence of 
political liberty and Republican institutions, that a 



292 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

war of political opinion — a war not waged for the 
subversion of society or government, but in vindica- 
tion, upon both sides, of principles wliicli they re- 
spectively assumed to be the basis of the constitu- 
tional system that had united them so long — should 
not end upon the battle-field, but should lead the 
vanquished to the dungeon and the scaffold. To 
have settled by brute force a question of constitu- 
tional right and self-government would seem re- 
proach enough, in itself, to the citizens of a Repub- 
lic which was founded on consent, and whose very 
origin made sacred and indefeasible the right of 
mankind to abrogate old governments and set up new. 
But that the victors in such a strife, not content 
with accepting their own superiority in numbers 
and material resources as conclusive upon a matter 
of reason and right, should select from the millions 
of their fellow-citizens who have laid down their 
arms, the most conspicuous and honored of their 
public servants, to atone by his personal sufferings 
for the sinful opinions of his people, would seem 
like closing the volume of human progress, and dis- 
pelling forever the dreams of the enthusiasts who 
believe that freedom and self-government improve 
and enlighten men. With what humiliation do we 
turn from such a picture to the noble spectacle of 
the Provisional Government of the French Republic 
of 1848, on the immortal occasion to which we 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 293 

have alluded. What a lesson in the grand words of 
Lamartine, when he proclaimed to his people in the 
first flush of their triumph, that it became them to 
make it " a victory and not a vengeance ! " What 
an example in the abolition of the death-penalty for 
political offences, as the first act of a government 
yet struggling with the infuriated passions of those 
who had created it, upon the arena still slippery 
with their own and their brothers' blood ! 

But assuming that all these teachings and exam- 
ples, and all the better instincts of men and nations 
are to be as naught, and that the South is to suffer, 
in the person of Mr. Davis, for the crime of its 
treason — if treason it were — let us consider for a 
moment how such a determination gets rid of the 
difficulty, which Mr. Burke found so insurmounta- 
ble, of framing an indictment against a people. It 
may be premised, we suppose, without contradiction, 
that the idea of settling the' question of the right of 
secession, by a judicial decision in the premises, is a 
simple and empty pretext. No one imagines that 
the Supreme Court would dare to pronounce in favor 
of that right, if the opinion of every judge on the 
bench was conscientiously and deliberately upon that 
side. The people of the North would not tolerate 
such a decision, nor abide by it if it were given, for, 
as we have said, the question is claimed, upon all 
hands, to have been settled forever by the result of 



294 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

the war. Nay, the Supreme Court itself, in 1862, in 
the Prize cases,* after using the language which we 
have quoted above, as to the assumption of the 
seceding States to absolve their citizens from alle- 
giance to the Federal Government and form a new 
Confederacy, declares in express terms that " their 
right to do so is now being decided by wager of bat- 
tle." The wager has long since been won, and the 
Supreme Court, with the rest of the winners, has 
possession of the bloody stakes. To imagine that 
the judges of that tribunal could now hold otherwise 
than that the " right " in dispute had been " de- 
cided," would be sheer fatuity. The question is no 
longer open. The conclusion is already foregone. 
The trial, conviction and execution of every sur- 
viving soldier of the Confederate armies would not 
strengthen it a jot or a tittle. Their universal ac- 
quittal, with Mr. Davis at their head, would not 
shake it, for an instant, in the popular mind and 
determination of the North. To moot the question 
before the courts is therefore but to enact a judicial 
farce — none the less a farce because death is hid 
under the motley. Still, if the form of a hearing 
is to be gone through, the form of a defence is pre- 
supposed as part of the drama, and it becomes those 
who think that bayonets are not pure reason, to sug- 
gest what reason they have to the contrary. 

* 2 Black, 673. 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 295 

The Supreme Court, as we have shown, has set- 
tled the question of both fact and law, that the 
Southern States " acted as States " in " organizing the 
rebellion." This was not merely the recital of a 
historical incident by the Court, but was absolutely 
necessary as an element in the maintenance of the 
doctrine which the Prize cases established. It was 
contended by the counsel of some of the claimants, 
citizens of Virginia, that they were not alleged or 
proven to be " traitors : " that insurrection was the 
crime of individuals and that the relation of citizens 
to the' Government of the United States was purely 
an individual one ; that the ordinances of secession, 
being unconstitutional and invalid, could not sever 
the allegiance of the citizen from the United States, 
or make him an enemy, and expose his property to 
capture and confiscation, if he was not, by his own 
individual act, in rebellion or hostility. There was 
but one possible escape, in the interest of the Gov- 
ernment, from this argument, and that was, to 
declare that the States went out " as States," in their 
corporate capacity, and that such State action, of 
itself, and without their personal participation, made 
every man, woman and child within the State limits 
an " enemy," in law, whether friend or enemy in 
fact. How a legal "nullity" could work such a 
legal result, is among the unexplained mysteries of 
belligerent jurisprudence — ^but still it was so de- 



296 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

cided, and the fact, legal and actual, that the States 
corporately, and not the individuals who composed 
them, " organized the rebellion," and formed the new 
Confederacy, was not only admitted, but set up, 
affirmatively, by the counsel of the United States, 
and by the court itself, as part of the case of this 
Government. Carried honestly out to its legitimate 
consequences, under the law of nations, this deci- 
sion disposes of the whole " treason ^' pretence. If 
an act of war, committed by a State, makes its citi- 
zens enemies, ipso facto, without reference to any 
conduct of their own, it must follow, of logical 
necessity, that all belligerent acts, done by the citi- 
zen, are the acts of the State and not of the individ- 
ual, and that they entail on the latter only the 
responsibility which attaches to enemies in arms, 
flagrante hello, and ceases when the war is over. 
They are, in the language of Burke, " offences of 
war," w^hich are " obliterated by peace." 

But, be this as it may, it is, at all events, impos- 
sible to dispute one logical result of the decision in 
question, viz. : that if State action and authority 
can exonerate the individual citizen who has obeyed 
them, from the crime of treason to the United 
States in the act of such obedience, neither Mr. 
Davis nor any other Southern citizen or soldier can 
lawfully be charged with that offence. To those 
who recognize the broad Southern doctrine of the 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 297 

right of secession, as expounded and defended by 
Dr. Bledsoe in a remarkable work, entitled, " Is 
Davis a Traitor ? " the case, of course, presents no 
difficulty in this aspect. The exercise of a right 
cannot involve a crime, and upon that theory the 
several State ordinances dissolved, at once, the rela- 
tion and responsibility of the citizen to the general 
Government. Under the modified doctrine, main- 
tained with so much ability by Mr. Bayard, of Dela- 
ware, the case is equally clear — for assuming, with 
him, the right of any of the States to withdraw 
from the constitutional compact, as sovereigns, 
whenever in their judgment its terms are infringed, 
coupled with the equal right of the other States to 
make war on those seceding, if they deem the seces- 
sion to be causeless — it is still a question of war be- 
tween sovereigns, involving belligerent rights and 
their consequences, but merging all responsibility of 
the individual citizen on either side. Nor is it easy 
to perceive how a different practical result can be 
arrived at under the doctrine of Mr. Buchanan's 
message to the Congress of December, 1860. That 
message, although since denounced with unexam- 
pled bitterness, undoubtedly represented at the 
time the opinion of nearly all the leaders of the 
Democratic party North, who were not secessionists 
avowed, and on the faith of it they pledged them- 
selves, as every one remembers, to interpose their 



298 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

bodies, in the most heroic manner, between the 
coercionists on their own soil and their cherished 
brethren of the South. That they apostatized from 
their convictions and falsified their pledges as never 
a great party was known to do before ; that they 
not only did not attempt to resist the advancing 
armies of abolitionism and coercion, but applied, in 
crowds, at once, for captaincies, colonelcies, major- 
generalships and particularly paymasterships, as 
they had been wont to rush for places in the post- 
oflSces and the custom-houses, in the bygone and 
beloved days of " rotation " and " the spoils," is 
well known to all who are acquainted with the an- 
nals of political cowardice, bad faith and prostitu- 
tion. But, as we have said, before the Dickinsons, 
the Bancrofts, the Butlers, and such like had been 
taught the inestimable value (in currency) of " the 
life of the nation," they agreed with Mr. Buchanan, 
that even if there was no constitutional right to se- 
cede, there was no constitutional right to coerce a 
State seceding. This being admitted, and the 
States having resisted, " as States," the exercise of 
an unconstitutional power, it would seem necessarily 
to follow, that their authority in such resistance was 
a legal protection and security to their citizens — un- 
less it can be shown that a State can repel an 
armed assault upon its rights, without the aid of its 
people, and that they commit a crime in aiding it to 



IMPEISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 299 

resist a forcible breach of the Constitution. It was 
upon this, among other grounds, that the Legisla- 
ture of Maryland, in 1861, asserted the right of the 
State, if she saw fit, to prevent the passage of Fed- 
eral troops across her soil, on their march to coerce 
and invade the South. The right to coerce being 
denied, under the Constitution, it was assumed to 
follow, that the assemblage and movement of troops 
for the purpose of coercion was a palpable violation of 
the Constitution, in furtherance of which the Fed- 
eral Government could not claim the right of tran- 
sit, which belonged to it only in aid and pursuance 
of its constitutional functions and powers. 

And this leads to a view of the immediate ques- 
tion under discussion, which we have never seen pre- 
sented, although it appears to be obvious, and would 
certainly seem to dispose of the charge of treason, 
so far as concerns Mr. Davis and all others in like 
case with him. It has the great advantage, too, of 
being connected, in no way, with the exciting ques- 
tions of secession and coercion, and of involving no 
decision as to the right or wrong of the action which 
the seceding States deemed themselves justified in 
adopting. 

Whatever may be said as to State rights and 
State sovereignty, in the Southern or Democratic 
sense of those terms, no one entitled to be heard 
will deny, we presume, that the States are, in some 



300 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

respects, sovereign, and have rights, of some sort, 
attached to their sovereignty. That the rights they 
thus possess are as incapable of violation, without a 
violation of the Constitution, and as fully entitled to 
protection and vindication, as the rights delegated 
to the general Government, is of course equally in- 
disputable. Let it be assumed, for the sake of the 
argument, that some clear and conceded constitu- 
tional right of a State, or of all the States, is in- 
vaded or about to be invaded by the Federal power 
— that some unquestionable attribute of State sov- 
ereignty is about to be assailed, in a manner which 
will be incontestably in derogation of the Constitu- 
tion. In many of such cases, a judicial solution of 
the difficulty may be practicable. There are others, 
of course — and especially when the scheme of usurpa- 
tion is instant and forcible — in which delay puts an 
end to the possibility of defence or remedy. As- 
sume, for instance, that a usurping President, under 
the direction of a usurping Congress or despising 
the remonstrances of a faithful one, is about to over- 
throw a State Government, by force of arms, and 
appropriate its territory to his own or the Federal 
uses, in acknowledged violation and contempt of the 
fundamental law. Let it be a case in which liberty 
is sought to be crushed as well as right. Can there 
be any dispute as to the duty and right of the State 
Government, to resist such an aggression, by force if 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 301 

it can — to marshal its troops, and defend its soil and 
the freedom of its people, by all the means within 
its reach? Can the right and duty of the sister 
States to join in such resistance be denied ? And 
by right and duty, we mean, not in a revolutionary 
nor a merely moral sense, but under the Constitu- 
tion, in order to resist its overthrow and maintain 
its inviolability ? Surely none but the most besot- 
ted of consolidationists can say nay to these in- 
quiries. In the twenty-eighth number of the Feder- 
alist, General Hamilton himself lays it down as " an 
axiom in our political system, that the State Govern- 
ments, within all possible contingencies, afford com- 
plete security against invasions of the public liberty 
by the national authority. . . . Possessing all the 
organs of civil power and the confidence of the 
people, they can at once adopt a regular plan of op- 
position, in which they can combine all the resources 
ot the community. They can readily communicate 
with each other, in the different States, and unite 
their common forces for the protection of their com- 
mon liberty." Mr. Madison expands the same idea 
over the whole of the forty-sixth number, in which 
he endeavors to allay all apprehensions of danger 
from the Federal power, by showing that "its 
schemes of usurpation will be readily defeated by 
the State Governments, which will be supported by 
the people." Indeed, he denounces with indigna- 



302 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

tion those who " insult the free and gallant citizens 
of America " by the suspicion that they would hesi- 
tate about thus defending their liberties. Assum- 
ing, then, that there are cases, few or many, in 
which the Federal Government may trench, with 
violence, upon the acknowledged rights and sover- 
eignty of the States, and that the States have the 
right to resist its aggressions by force — which they 
must have, unless we are slaves — who is to deter- 
mine when and whether such an occasion has arisen ? 
Not the Federal Government, of course, for that 
would reduce the right of resistance to an absurdity. 
The Supreme Court, in the well-known case of Mar- 
tin vs. Mott,* involving the exercise of the military 
powers of the Federal Executive in certain contin- 
gencies of Invasion or insurrection, determined, that 
from the nature of the powers and the objects to be 
accomplished, the officer entrusted with the authority 
is the sole and exclusive judge whether the exigency 
has arisen. In the parallel case of Luther vs. Bor- 
den '\ the court has added " that the ordinary pro- 
ceedings in courts of justice would be utterly unfit 
for the crisis." By inevitable parity of reason, the 
States, in the cases I have assumed, and in a like 
crisis, must be the judges of their exigency also, 
and so being, the exercise of their judgment and 
their commands to their citizens, in that exercise, 

* 12 Wheaton, 19. t 7 How. 44. 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 303 

must be a shield to the citizens who obey. In the 
case of Mitchell vs. Harmony * the Supreme Court 
decided, that where a superior has a lawful discre- 
tion and exercises it, the inferior whom he com- 
mands is justified in his obedience, and cannot be 
held responsible, though a wrong to third parties 
may result from it, and though the superior " may 
have abused his power, or acted through improper 
motives." This doctrine, which is founded on rea- 
son as well as authority, seems to place the conclu- 
sion above controversy, that where one of the 
States of the Union, in the exercise of its undoubted 
right to resist a Federal usurpation, sees fit to de- 
termine that a case for such resistance has arisen, 
the citizen who acts under the State authority, and 
is punishable under its laws if he refuses so to act, 
is not responsible to the Federal tribunals, though 
the State may have exercised its discretion un- 
wisely, or prematurely, or even wrongfully, in the 
premises. Whether the State has " abused its 
power, or acted through improper motives," is a 
matter for the State and the Union to settle, but the 
citizen is shielded, let it be settled as it may. 

I have suggested these points (from among the 
many which present themselves) with the necessary 
brevity, and rather for the mere sake of truth and 
right, than from any hope that such things will be 

* 13 Howard, 137. 



304 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

heeded. When a judge of the highest tribunal of 
the United States, like Mr. Justice Grier, in deliver- 
ing its opinion upon the gravest case ever presented 
to its consideration, is so lost to the decencies of his 
position as to sneer at an objection to Executive 
action, on the ground of its unconstitutionality, and 
to print the word ^'unconstitutional!!!^^ in italics 
and with three notes of admiration, in order to make 
his contempt typographically conspicuous,* it is, we 
fear, but wasted time, to appeal to any principle of 
the Constitution, however solemn, which stands 
between fanaticism or vindictiveness and the victim 
for whom they rage. 

But were Mr. Davis ever so much the " traitor " 
that the Holts and Butlers call him, he would still 
have some rights — the right to a speedy and impar- 
tial trial under the provisions of the Constitution 
which he is accused of having violated — the right to 
be bailed, if the Government declines to try him. 
Need we quote anew the language of the fifth and 
sixth Amendments to the Constitution, unhappily 
too well remembered through the land, from the con- 
tempt with which the usurpations of the war went 
trampling daily over them ? When the sixth article 
declares that in " all criminal prosecutions, the ac- 
cused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and impartial 
trial," does it mean that he shall be mocked, for 

* 2 Black, 663. 



IMPRISONMENT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 305 

eighteen weary months of insolent and harassing 
outrage and delay, by every subterfuge that official 
prevarication can devise or party clamor can encour- 
age ? Does it mean that he shall be bandied from 
military commissions to judges and grand juries ; 
that Underwoods and Chandlers and Chases shall 
hold him prisoner at their will, and try him or not, 
as their caprice or malice may suggest? Does it 
signify that Republican Conventions shall determine 
upon the disposition to be made of him, and that 
Radical orators shall insist on his being held, that 
they may make a standing clap-trap of his life and 
his gibbet ? Does it mean that the civil authorities 
are not to try him, because the military authorities 
have him in custody, and are not to deliver 
him from that custody on habeas corpus, lest they 
should then have to try him ? Does the Constitu- 
tion of the United States intend that the President 
shall have the power to hand the prisoner over to 
the civil authority — in other words, to pass him 
from his own military hand to his civil hand — and 
yet not have the power to see that the civil author- 
ity, of which he is the head, discharges its duty or 
rele£^es its prisoner ? Time was, when to ask these 
questions were an insult. It is, now, perhaps only to 
provoke an official smile at the weakness which still 
talks about the Constitution ! 

We read in the very highest English authority 
20 



306 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

upon criminal law and practice * that " The princi- 
pal ground for bailing, upon liaheas corpus, and in- 
deed the evil the writ was intended to remedy, is 
the neglect of the accuser to prosecute in due time. 
Even in case of high treason, ivhere the party has 
been committed upon the warrant of the Secretary of 
State, after a year has elapsed icithout his prosecution, 
the court will discharge him, upon adequate security 
being given for his appearance^ As early as the 
close of the Revolution of 1776, Mr. Henry Laurens, 
then a prisoner in the Tower, was able to satisfy one 
of the British peers who visited him, that the writ of 
Imbeas corpus was already more speedily and thorough- 
ly remedial in the colonies than in the mother country. 
And yet there are those who think that we have im- 
proved on the institutions of that generation and the 
wisdom and patriotism of the men who made them. 

There is but one more topic which the imprison- 
ment of Mr. Davis suggests, and upon that I touch 
with the reluctance which comes from utter disgust 
and shame. We refer, of course, to the personal in- 
dignities which have attended it — indignities at 
which the gorge of every decent, dispassionate man 
in the wide world must rise, and the obloquy of 
which must rest more heavily forever on the nation 
which has tolerated them, than even on the ruffians 
in office, who had the baseness to direct their perpe- 

* 1 Chitty's Criminal Law, 131. 



IMPEISONMENT OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 307 

tration. There is sometliing in the very idea of an 
old and honored citizen — once a Cabinet officer of 
the nation, and unsurpassed in the abiUtj with 
which his duties were discharged — a man of elo- 
quence and thought — a Senator and statesman — a 
soldier whose body is scarred with honorable wounds 
suffered in the service of his country — a pure and 
upright public servant, whose lips were never sullied 
by falsehood and whose hands are clean of corrup- 
tion — there is something, I say, in the mere idea 
that such a man — wasted by disease and physically 
broken by disaster — should be manacled and fet- 
tered, with barbarous violence, in a fortress of this 
Kepublic — which must call the blush to every 
American cheek that conscious disgrace can redden. 
But even shame must give way to indignation and 
scorn, when it is remembered that the infamy was 
perpetrated by the order of the very department 
over which the victim once presided with so much 
usefulness and honor; that it was commanded in 
utter wantonness, merely to lacerate and sting a 
sensitive, proud spirit, and that a general of the 
armies of the Union was the gratified instrument of 
its infliction. It recalls the last days of the Roman 
Republic, when the tongue of a Cicero, captive and 
murdered, was pierced by the spiteful bodkin of a 
strumpet. And even this outrage of the manacles 
apart — the story of daily and nightly torments, and 



308 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

hourly petty persecutions — of needless hardships 
and discomforts, and gratuitous insults — has some- 
thing in it which makes belief almost impossible, 
without a contempt for our race. Then, too, the 
mean espionage, and paltry overlooking — the swarm 
of impertinent men and women let loose by his 
jailor on his feeble walks and domestic privacy — the 
sick man driven to his cell by the insufferable peer- 
ing of rude and vulgar eyes — what a spectacle these 
things present of the magnanimity of a great na- 
tion ! And when at last the prisoner is allowed the 
common decencies of a country jail and is permitted 
to share the society of his wife and children, what a 
clamor over the land it causes — some cursing the 
indulgence — some magnifying the generosity of the 
Government ! The Associated Press anticipates the 
wishes of the War Department and the taste of its 
constituents, by exaggerating the "luxuries" of 
"Jeff.'s" new and commodious quarters, and by 
telling how "grateful" he is for the "clemency" 
which has been extended him. The readers of its 
despatches — ninety out of an hundred of them — are 
quite sure that it is indeed a case for gratitude, and 
that the "traitor" ought to bless his stars that, 
after having committed the awful crime of enter- 
taining and fighting for the constitutional opinions 
of himself and his fathers, he was not drawn and 
quartered for it, in Faneuil Hall, after morning 
prayer, on Lord's day following his arrest. 



M 



REMINISCENCE. 

BY GENERAI, JOSEPH WHEEI.ER, 
Member of Congress from Alabama. 

Y commission as lieutenant of cavalry in the 
United States Army was signed by Mr, Lin- 
coln ; but my warrant as a cadet at the Mili- 
tary Academy, and all my commissions in the Con- 
federate Army, were signed by Mr. Davis. My first 
recollection of this remarkable man recalls him as a 
visitor, either in the character of Secretary of War 
or of United States Senator, to the Military Academy 
at West Point while I was a cadet. Particularly do 
I remember his visit in the autumn of 1858. He 
was then comparatively young, but little more than 
fifty years of age, his tall and erect figure and sol- 
dierly bearing giving him the appearance of a much 
younger man. His military reputation won at 
Buena Vista was still fresh, and added much to at- 
tract to him the youthful cadets, most of whom 
were familiar with the stirring events which had 
made him famous. 

My first meeting with Mr, Davis during the war 
was during his visit to the army at Murfreesboro' in 
December, 18G2. I was stationed in command of 

the outposts, crowded close up to the enem}'-, and 

309 



310 BEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

General Bragg invited me to headquarters and to 
a dinner, at which the corps and division com- 
manders were to dine with the President. I was 
quite young at the time, barely twenty-six years of 
age, and I enjoyed most heartily the uninterrupted 
flow of wit and repartee which characterized gather- 
ings composed of such men as Davis, Breckenridge, 
Polk, Hardee and Bragg. 

The battle of Murfreesboro' took place immedi- 
ately after this event, and I was so fortunate as to 
succeed in winning the approval of my commander 
and with it the commission of ]\Iajor-General. It 
was not until then General Bragg told me that Mr. 
Davis, during his visit, had earnestly insisted upon 
then giving me the grade of Major-General and 
placing me in command of the Department of the 
Gulf; this was, however, opposed by Bragg, who 
urged that I would be of more value in the field. 
It was probably fortunate for me that I did not re- 
ceive the appointment and transfer, for it would 
have deprived me of much active service, which I 
preferred to the more quiet duties of a Department 
commander. 

I did not see Mr. Davis again until the dying days 
of the Confederacy, at Charlotte, North Carolina. 
It was two weeks after the fearful struggle of Appo- 
mattox. General Johnston had withdrawn his 
army to Greensboro', and was negotiating a surren- 



KEMINISCENCE. 311 

der with his Federal opponent, General Sherman. 
Mr. Davis sent for me to assist in arranging his 
plans and to determine his movements at that criti- 
cal period. I found him, I think, it was the morn- 
ing of April 28th, giving directions to his Cabinet 
with a precision which, by no means indicated that 
the Government of which he was the head had 
virtually ceased to exist. He realized that he could 
not remain at Charlotte ; and his desire was to keep 
at least some semblance of Government together as 
long as possible. He wished as large a force of cav- 
alry as he could obtain for his escort, and directed 
that a depot be established at Cokesboro', South 
Carolina, where he intended to remain until driven 
from that place by the enemy. 

Mr. Davis seemed surprised when informed of the 
condition of the army, that the soldiers quite gener- 
ally regarded the war as over, and thought that 
their obligations to the Confederacy were discharged. 
He also appeared greatly disappointed when I in- 
formed him of the movements of Federal cavalry, 
which would threaten the proposed depot at Cokes- 
boro' ; and- after some discussion, I was directed to 
organize a force and join him without delay. I re- 
turned to Greensboro', hastily complied with his di- 
rections, and started by rapid march to join him. 
The conditions became so greatly altered for the 
worse that the President was compelled to change 



312 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

liis plans, and I was directed to disband the force of 
gallant men who had pledged themselves to defend 
him or to die in the effort to to accomplish it. 

I next met Mr. Davis at Augusta, Georgia. He 
had been taken prisoner in Southern Georgia, and I 
had been arrested upon the supposed charge of not 
having surrendered with General Johnston's army. 
We went to Savannah on a small steamboat, thence 
to Hilton Head, where we boarded the transport 
" Clyde," and, conveyed by the frigate " Tuscarora," 
we sailed for Fortress Monroe. 

Our party included Mr. and Mrs. Davis, their 
daughter, a very young girl in short dresses, and 
Miss Winnie, a baby in arms ; also Miss Howell, a 
sister of Mrs. Davis, Mr. Reagan, Senator and Mrs. 
C. C. Clay, Alexander Stephens, Colonel Preston 
Johnston, Colonels Lubboch and Burton Harrison, 
of Mr. Davis' staff, and my three staff officers — 
Colonel Marcellus Hudson, Captain Rawle and 
Lieutenant Ryan. 

We formed a very pleasant group, and consider- 
ing all things, enjoyed the trip more than might 
have been expected. Mr. Davis' noble courage never 
forsook him for a moment; he was perfectly calm, 
and seemed to have no regard for himself or his 
fate. He fully appreciated the sad condition of the 
people of the Confederacy, and much that he said 
showed how clearly his penetrating mind peered into 



REMINISCENCE. 313 

the future. He talked of the war, of our successes 
and defeats, of the difficulties against which we had 
contended, of the courage and devotion of our sol- 
diers; and to some extent he spoke of the officers 
who had become prominent on both sides during the 
eventful period in which he had been so important a 
figure. 

I saw two possible chances for his escape, both of 
which I made known to him, but he expressed him- 
self as not desiring to make the attempt. It was 
evident that he felt his relief from responsibility, 
and amid all his trials and troubles he evidently en- 
joyed the pleasure of having a few days which he 
could so entirely devote to his family. He walked 
the deck with his baby Winnie in his arms, and fre- 
quently allowed me the same privilege, which I 
was always delighted to accept. We were at sea 
several days, the " Tuscarora " always being near us. 

Mr. Stephens and myself occupied the same state- 
room. He was less cheerful than Mr. Davis, and 
seemed very much more apprehensive regarding our 
fate. I tried to reassure him, and reminded him of 
his Savannah speech and of his extensive acquain- 
tance with men who held prominent positions in the 
Government; but my arguments were without ef- 
fect, and he expressed himself as convinced that his 
confinement would be very long, if not perpetual. 
I said : " Why, Mr. Stephens, if you expect such 



314 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

treatment, what about Mr. Davis ? " His only reply 
was : " My young friend, do not speak of it." 

On reaching Fortress Monroe we found the more 
radical press of the country, backed by an excited 
people, loudly demanding blood ; but even this did 
not move Mr. Davis in the slightest. While he 
seemed ready for anything, he appeared to fear 
nothing. We saw a fine steamboat, with probably 
a thousand flags and streamers flying from the 
masts, spars and rigging ; and on inquiring, we were 
informed that General Halleck was on board, his 
mission being to dispose of the prisoners. 

Orders were received on the next day. Mr. 
Davis and Mr. Clay were sent ashore to the fort. 
Captain Farley, of the " Tuscarora," was ordered to 
transport Mr. Stephens and Mr. Reagan to Fort 
Warren. Colonel Preston Johnson, my staff of- 
ficers and myself were sent by Captain Parker, of 
the steamer " Maumee," to Fort Delaware. 

I met Mr. Davis in New Orleans some two or 
three years later, and again saw more of him during 
the period he was a citizen of Memphis, where he 
was earnestly engaged in an effort to recuperate his 
broken fortunes. In private conversations with him 
I learned to appreciate the difliculties which sur- 
rounded Mr. Davis during a trying period, which 
would have crushed many a brave spirit. This 
great man was undaunted to the last, solving every 



EEMINISCENCE. 315 

problem, surmounting obstacle after obstacle, and 
braving difficulties before which a less noble spirit 
would have succumbed. 

Probably no man in this country has ever been 
so thoroughly misrepresented and misunderstood as 
Mr. Davis. Nearly every utterance of his has been 
misinterpreted or misconstrued. It has been charged 
that he lived too much in the past, and took too lit- 
tle part in the great strides of this progressive, ma- 
terial age ; but the more thoughtful will concur in 
the view that his peculiar position fully justified his 
action. He was the special custodian of the history 
of events, which constitute the most important 
period of our national existence, and it might well 
be contended that his life should have been conse- 
crated to the cause of which he was the leader. 

Mr. Davis was too thorough a student of the 
events of both modern and ancient times to doubt 
the verdict of the calm historian. He knew that 
when passions have subsided and w^hen the lines of 
sectionalism are obliterated, the unbiassed pen of 
history will record his deeds and his true worth 
will be appreciated by posterity. This has been 
the case with all great civil conflicts. History tells 
of the brave and chivalrous deeds of the heroes of 
both sides in such struggles, and in their admiration 
for types of true nobility, people will not stop to in- 
quire who were finally the victors and who the van- 



316 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

quished. In reading the heroic deeds performed 
during the War of the Roses, is our admiration in- 
fluenced by the thought of whether the hero fought 
with the victorious hosts of York or beneath the 
crimson banner of Lancaster ? Certainly the glory 
of the gallant men who so bravely struggled in the 
Vendee is not tarnished by the fact that the over- 
whelming power of the French Republic finally 
crushed them to the dust. The same is true of the 
fruitless efforts of Marco Bozarris to establish free- 
dom in Greece, and of the valiant Poles to maintain 
the integrity and independence of their Govern- 
ment and the freedom of their native land. 



ADDRESS 

BY MAJOR CHARI^ES S. STRINGFELLOW. 
Delivered December 21st, in the Academy of Music, Richmond, Va. 

N the historic capital of Lombardy there is a mon- 
ument, modest in proportions, but yet of exqui- 
site beauty and design. A solid block of white 
marble rests upon a base to which lead some five or 
six steps. Upon this block, of life-size, is the statue 
of a man in senatorial robes, and kneeling at its base 
is the figure of a woman supporting herself with one 
arm resting on the block at the feet of the statue 
and with the other outstretched, with pen in hand, 
writing upon the marble the single word " Cavour." 
The idea, as I interpret it, is simply this : When 
Italy writes the name of her great son she need add 
no epitaph to tell the world who and what he was. 

And quite as little need have I to address to this 
vast assemblage any labored argument in behalf of 
the object which has called it together. It is enough 
for you to know that you have met to give point and 
emphasis to the wish, the earnest, heartfelt desire, 
not merely of the citizens of Richmond, but of the 
whole people of this good old Commonwealth, that 
the mortal remains of Jefferson Davis may find their 

final resting-place here in our beautiful city, so indel- 

317 



318 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ibly linked with his name and his fame. I need 
prefix no title to that name, for all men know, and 
while they cherish the memory of the great and the 
good who adorn the annals of the world, will know 
that he was the first and only President of that Con- 
federacy which, in its heroic struggle to perpetuate 
constitutional liberty and preserve constitutional law, 
excited the wonder and compelled the admiration of 
mankind ; and which, though like a meteor it rose 
upon the sight of the nations and like a meteor fell, 
has left behind it a blaze of light which will never 
go out in utter darkness until mankind shall cease to 
honor courage, love justice, and respect that unselfish 
devotion to duty which, in defence of honest opin- 
ions honestly entertained, is willing to risk and lose 
fortune, life, and all save honor. 

WAS A GALLANT SOLDIER. 

That Jefferson Davis was a gallant soldier even 
his bitterest opponent has never dared deny. When 
a member of the Congress of the United States he 
resigned his high and honorable office to accept the 
command of the First Mississippi Volunteers, to 
which he had been called by his neighbors and 
friends, who best knew those great qualities of head 
and heart which even then pointed him out as one 
born to rule. As colonel of that regiment he distin- 
guished himself at Monterey and at Buena Vista by 



ADDRESS. 319 

his instinctive military perceptions and superb cour- 
age on the field, more than any other man contrib- 
uted to win the victory which shed such renown on 
American arms. Tendered the promotion he had so 
nobly won with his sword, he refused to accept it 
because he doubted the power of the President to 
appoint to office in the volunteer troops which the 
States had raised. In 1847, as in 18G1, regardless of 
self, he was mindful of and obedient to law, and 
above all to that law which, as embodied in the Con- 
stitution, was then, as now, the bond of our great 
Union. 

IN THE CABINET AND SENATE. 

As a Cabinet officer he discharged the duties inci- 
dent to that position with such fidelity and ability 
as to win universal applause. Calm, dispassionate 
and self-reliant, he was a wise counselor, and, sinking 
all private interests in his love for the public weal, 
left behind a reputation for administrative capacity 
and incorruptible integrity second to none. But he 
was not content to be an adviser only, and originated 
reforms of great and far-reaching importance, the 
value of which is still felt and acknowledo-ed. 

o 

A laborious student, with a memory almost phe- 
nomenal, and a profound knowledge of the history 
and institutions of his country, he was one of the 
acknowledged leaders and ablest debaters in the Sen- 
ate when that body was graced by such men as Ben- 



320 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ton, Cass, Webster, Clay and Calhoun. Clear in his 
perceptions and firm in his convictions, by force of 
his imperial will, incorruptible honor and great abili- 
ties, he maintained his opinions with a power of logic, 
a perfect command of language and a determined 
purpose which ever made him an ally to be courted 
and an opponent to be feared. He was ardently at- 
tached to the Union of our fathers, and loved its 
flag, which he himself had borne to victory, and he 
looked to the dissolution of that Union as the direst 
of all calamities save the destruction of individual 
freedom and those great principles of constitutional 
law upon which that union was founded. He con- 
sented to sever its bonds only when convinced that 
in no other way could these principles be preserved 
— only when satisfied that they had been deliberately 
disregarded, and that the best interests of social and 
individual liberty demanded that the Southern 
States should revoke those powers they had conferred 
upon the General Government, which, as he believed, 
had been perverted to the threatened ruin of the 
States by whom they had been granted. No man 
had a more profound appreciation of the tremendous 
consequences which secession involved or more bit- 
terly regretted its necessity. 

GOOD, PURE, ABLE, BRAVE. 

One of the best and purest, and, all things con- 
sidered, the ablest exponents and embodiments of the 



ADDRESS. 321 

life and soul of southern society in all of its develop- 
ments and relations, though when war was imminent 
he preferred to risk his life on the field in defence of 
the cause he had espoused, he was called to the 
Presidency of the Southern Confederacy by the al- 
most unanimous voice of his fellow-citizens. The 
office sought him, not he the office, for Jefferson 
Davis 

"Never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
Nor paltered with the eternal God for power." 

Never was man placed in more trying circum- 
stances, never did man undertake a more herculean 
task nor sustain himself with greater dignity, more 
lofty courage, and unbending determination, or more 
unfaltering devotion in prosperity and adversity to 
the great interests committed to his charge. 

NOT PERFECT, BUT PURE. 

Against the spotless purity of our illustrious Chief- 
tain slander itself has never dared to breathe one 
single word. To say that he made no mistakes 
would be to claim for him that infallibility which is 
accorded to none. Men may differ as to the wisdom 
or expediency of some of the measures he proposed 
and some which he carried out, but no man denies 
to-day that his motives were pure, his aims high, his 
convictions honest, and his every energy of mind 

and body freely given to his country and her cause. 
21 



322 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

An ardent patriot, he loved this southern land, for 
which he risked and lost so much, and for whose 
people he suffered so greatly, 

" With love far brought 
From out the storied Past, and used 
Within the Present, but transfused 
Thro' future time by the power of thought." 

But, my fellow-citizens, brave as he was on the 
battle-field, wise as he was in Cabinet council, superb 
as he was on the Senate floor, and grandly as he 
towered above all others as the chosen head and un- 
daunted leader of the Southern Confederacy, there 
was one character in which he shone with a light 
more resplendent still — in the majesty which like a 
halo encompasses around the honest, true and fear- 
less Christian man. 

" O, good gray head which all men knew ; 
O, voice from which their omens all men drew, 
O, iron nerve to true occasion true ; 

O, fall'n at length that tower of strength 
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew." 

THIS THE SPOT. 

What more suitable spot could be selected for that 
resting-place than this, the permanent capital of the 
Southern Confederacy, forever linked as it is with 
the name of its great President, and with its hopes 
and fears, its victories and defeats, its brilliant rise 
and its honorable fall ? And who would more sa- 
,credly guard his tomb than the citizens of this capital 



ADDRESS. 323 

of Old Virginia, in whose battle-scarred bosom lie 
countless thousands of those heroic soldiers whose 
march from Big Bethel to Appomattox is blazed in 
glory ? Richmond was the gateway and citadel of 
the Southern Confederacy, and its burning houses 
and homes its grand funeral pyre ; here its honored 
President lived and moved, and had his being in the 
most eventful years of his long and eventful life. 
Here still stands the church in which he worshipped 
the God whom alone he feared, and where he sat 
when he first learned that the southern cause was 
irretrievablj'' lost. On yonder hill, in that mansion 
historic now and forever safe, I trust, from the van- 
dal hand of ill-timed economy, with the noble wife 
who still lives to mourn her irreparable loss and in 
whose sacred sorrow every one here present claims 
a share, he knew the purest joys and the deepest 
sorrows earth can bring. There a son, the pride 
and the hope of his heart, met an untimely end, and 
from that house was borne to his little grave in our 
City of the Dead which loving hands still tend. 
There was born to him a daughter, whose bruised 
heart now bleeds in a foreign land, to watch over 
his declining years and soothe with tenderest hand 
the infirmities of age. 

LEFT A PRECIOUS LEGACY. 

His grand life's work is done, but his name, his 
fame, and his example remain to us a precious leg- 



324 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

acy, and though they will forever remain embalmed 
in the grand mausoleum of a great people's heart, it 
is fitting that some appropriate monument should 
he reared by that people to tell posterity where rests 
all that the grave can claim of their soldier, states- 
man, patriot chief. 

THERE REST HILL, STUART, PICKETT AND PEGRAM. 

The gallant Hill lies under the grand old oaks at 
Hollywood ; there the knightly Stuart sleeps, whose 
waving plume his dashing troopers followed in many 
a desperate charge, while right and left in the fore- 
front of battle flashed his glittering sword. There 
brave Pickett rests, the leader of that heroic brigade 
whose unparalleled courage would alone make the 
name of Gettysburg immortal, and there the winter 
winds chant their funeral-dirge over the grave of 
Richmond's boy hero, the stainless Pegram, in all 
save age and rank the peer of the noblest, while all 
around that ivy-covered granite-pile which we have 
reared in their honor are the little grass-grown hil- 
locks which tell where thousands upon thousands of 
the unknown dead who followed the Confederate 
flag with courage and fortitude almost sublime rest 
in their soldier graves. 

Surely, if the dead could speak to us from the 
unseen world it would be in the midst of such asso- 
ciations and in the company of such kindred spirits 



ADDRESS. 325 

he would ask to lie. Stonewall Jackson's statue 
already stands in our public square, and before 
another year has closed the figure of our peerless 
Lee shall from its granite pedestal look down on us. 
See to it, my fellow-citizens, that here, too, shall 
rise some appropriate shaft in honor of our and 
their great chief. 

HISTOEIC INFLUENCES. 

In asking that his final interment may be here we 
honor ourselves no less than him, for this desire 
springs from the noblest sentiments of the human 
heart. Perhaps I overestimate the influence which 
historic monuments and the associations which clus- 
ter around the graves of the mighty dead exert over 
a people's character and development. Nevertheless 
that magnificent invocation of Demosthenes to the 
disembodied spirits of those who fell at Marathon 
still stirs a fever in the veins of men. The Acro- 
polis, which crowned with the trophies of her arms 
was once the object of her veneration, is still the 
pride of Athens, and something of the awe with 
which the Roman in the days of his pride and power 
regarded the Capitoline Rock has come down 
through all the intervening ages even to the present 
day. 

RICHMOND MUST HAVE THE REMAINS. 

Enter the grand old Cathedral at Glasgow by the 
stone steps which in the lapse of centuries the tread 



326 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

of human feet has almost worn away and take off 
your hat before the torn, time-eaten flag hanging 
against its walls which the Twenty-sixth Cameronian 
Regiment carried to victory at Malplacquet, Oudinot 
and Ramillies; look upon the splendid monument 
to old John Knox which crowns the cemetery height 
in rear of the Cathedral, then stop a moment before 
the window of his house in Edinburgh, and wander 
through old St. Giles, which echoed to his voice, and 
stand by the iron plate sunk in the pavement of the 
street, once its yard, which marks his grave not far 
from the little heart of brass which tells you where 
the centre of the Tolbooth was; wonder at the 
beauty of those superb monuments to the memory 
of Scott and Burns and Hume ; go through the his- 
toric halls of Holyrood and Stirling Castle, visit the 
field of Bannockburn and call up the scenes enacted 
there when Robert the Bruce planted his standard 
by the rough stone at your feet ; and then, when you 
go to Melrose, drop a sprig of heather on that be- 
neath which his great heart was buried, and I think 
you will better understand the Scotchman's love for 
liis native land. It is a land of monuments and 
memories, and out from its storied past comes an in- 
fluence and an inspiration whose value and import- 
ance money cannot measure. I pity the man who 
does not feel his heart throb with a somewhat nobler 
feeling as he looks upon the magnificent monuments 



ADDRESS. 327 

which a grateful country has erected under the grand 
old dome of St. Paul's to commemorate the deeds of 
Nelson and Wellington and perpetuate the memories 
of Trafalgar and Waterloo. Cold indeed must be he, 
and dead to all the highest, holiest impulses of our 
nature, who can walk unmoved through the long 
aisles of England's great burial-place for the soldiers 
and statesmen, the poets and philosophers, the men 
of thought and the men of action who have shed 
such imperishable glory on her name, who cannot to 
some extent at least sympathize with the memorable 
exclamation of one of her greatest heroes as he went 
into battle — Victory or Westminster Abbey! Yes, 
my fellow-citizens, Richmond must have the remains 
of our noble Chieftain, and here we must rear some 
suitable monument to tell to our children's children 
the story of his heroic life. Let no such word as 
fail be found in the lexicon of manhood any more 
than in that of youth when lofty motives, intelligent 
action and concerted efforts are cheered by woman's 
presence and approval. In those days that so sorely 
tried the souls of her men, the women of Virginia 
displayed courage as true, patriotism as pure, and 
will as undaunted as the Spartan mother who, with 
tearless eye, bidding good-bye to her only son as she 
sent him to the field, pointed to his shield with the 
simple words : This or upon this ! 

Many of them, with their fair daughters, yet sur- 



328 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

vive to bless our hearts and homes. To them I 
make no appeal, for their hearts ever beat in unison 
with all that is true, all that is beautiful and all that 
is good. 

Let us, then, take such steps as may be necessary 
to show, not in words only, but in act and deed as 
well, the sincerity of our desire to be trusted with 
watch and ward over our honored dead as he sleeps, 
crowned with the reverence and the love of his 
people. 

"So sleep the brave who sink to rest, 
By all their country's wishes blest ; 
By fairy bands their knell is rung, 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung. 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To deck the turf that wraps their clay ; 
And Freedom shall awhile repair 
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there." 



FUNERAL ORATION* 

BY COL. CHARI,E;S C. JONES, JR., I.I..D., 
President of the Confederate Survivors' Association. 

WHEN Wilkie was in the Escurial studying 
those famous pictures which have so long 
attracted the notice of all lovers of art, an 
old Jeronymite said to him : " I have sat daily 
in sight of those paintings for nearly four-score 
years. During that time all who were more aged 
than myself have passed away. My contemporaries 
are gone. Many younger than myself are in their 
graves; and still the figures upon those canvases 
remain unchanged. I look at them until I some- 
times think they are the realities, and we but the 
shadows." 

The battle scenes which the heroes of the South 
have painted; the memories which Confederate 
valor, loyalty and endurance have bequeathed ; the 
blessed recollections which the pious labors, the 
saintly ministrations and the more than Spartan 
inspiration of the women of the Revolution have 
embalmed — these will dignify for all time the an- 
nals of the civilized world ; but the actors in that 

* Pronounced in the Opera House in Augusta, Ga., December 11th, 
1889; upon the occasion of the Memorial Services in honor of President 
Jefferson Davis. 

329 



330 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

memorable crisis, they — the shadows — will pass 
away. Johnston — the Bayard of the South, — Jack- 
son — our military meteor streaming upward and 
onward in an unbroken track of light, and ascend- 
ing to the skies in the zenith of his fame, — Lee — 
the most stainless of earthly commanders and, ex- 
cept in fortune, the greatest — and multitudes of 
their companions in arms have already gone 

" To where beyond these voices there is peace." 

But yesterday Jefferson Davis — the commander 
of them all — the most distinguished representative 
of a cause which electrified the civilized world by 
the grandeur of its sacrifices, the dignity and recti- 
tude of its aims, the nobility of its pursuit, and the 
magnitude and brilliancy of the deeds performed in 
its support — entered into rest. The President of 
the dead Confederacy lies in state in the metropolis 
of the South, and every Southern Commonwealth is 
clothed in the habiliments of mourning. At this 
moment, throughout the wide borders of this South- 
ern land, there is not a village or a hamlet which 
bears not the tokens of sorrow. By common con- 
sent, the entire region consecrates this hour to the 
observance of funeral ceremonies in honor of our 
departed chief. General and heart-felt grief per- 
vades the whole territory once claimed by the Con- 
federacy. Was sorrow so spontaneous, so genuine, 
so unselfish, so universal, ever known in the history 



FUNERAL ORATION. 331 

of community and nation, — sorrow at the departure 
of one who long ago refrained from a participation 
in pubhc affairs, who had no pecuniary or political 
legacies to bequeath, and whose supreme blessings 
were utterly devoid of utilitarian advantage ? This 
spectacle, grand, pathetic and unique, is not incapa- 
ble of explanation or devoid of special significance. 

Within that coffin in New Orleans in silent ma- 
jesty reposes all that was mortal of him whom im- 
partial history will designate as one of the most re- 
markable men of the nineteenth century. Around 
his bier in profound respect and loving veneration 
are assembled the trustworthy representatives of the 
South. Encircling that venerable and uncrowned 
head are memories of valor, of knightly courtesy, of 
intellectual, moral and political pre-eminence, of 
high endeavor, and of heroic martyrdom. In that 
dignified form — so calm, so cold in the embrace of 
death — we recognized the highest type of the South- 
ern gentleman. In his person, carriage, cultivated 
address and superior endowments, we hailed the 
culmination of our patriarchal civilization. In him 
was personified all that was highest, truest, grandest, 
alike in the hour of triumph and in the day of de- 
feat. He was the chosen head and the prime expo- 
nent of the aspirations and the heroism of the 
Southern Confederacy. As such his people looked 
up to and rallied around him in the period of proud 



332 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

endeavor, and as such they still saluted him amid 
the gloom of disappointment. As we approach that 
revered form and render signal tribute at the grave 
of our dead President, every recollection of a 
glorious past is revived, and our souls are filled with 
memories over which the "iniquity of oblivion" 
should never be allowed blindly to " scatter her 
poppy." It is a great privilege, my friends, to ren- 
der honor to this illustrious man. Ours be the mis- 
sion to guard well his memory — accepting it in the 
present and commending it to the future as redolent 
of manhood most exalted, of virtues varied and 
most admirable. 

Although no Federal flag be displayed at half- 
mast, or Union guns deliver the funeral salute cus- 
tomary upon the demise of an ex-Secretary of War, 
we may regard with composure the littleness of the 
attempted slight, and pity the timidity, the narrow- 
mindedness and the malevolence of the powers that 
be. The great soul of the dead chief has passed 
into a higher, a purer sphere uncontaminated by sec- 
tional hatred, wholly purged of all dross engendered 
by contemptible human animosity. 

It were impossible, my friends, within the limits 
of this hour to even allude to the leading events 
and mighty occurrences in the life and career of him 
whose obsequies we are now solemnizing. Born of 
Georgia parents in bountiful Kentucky, while yet an 



FUNERAL ORATION. 333 

infant his home was transferred to Mississippi, 
where his childhood and youth were spent in a com- 
munity remarkable for the lofty, honorable, hos- 
pitable and courteous bearing of its men, and the 
chastity, polish and loveliness of its women. In 
such an atmosphere he acquired at the outset those 
gallant, urbane, refined, elevated and commanding 
traits which characterized him through the whole 
course of his prominent and checkered career. 

Leaving Transylvania College in 1824, he entered 
the United States Military Academy at West Point. 
Upon his graduation in 1828 he was assigned to the 
First Infantry, and saw his earliest active service in 
the Black Hawk War. On June 30, 1835, he re- 
signed his commission as first lieutenant of dra- 
goons; and, having married a daughter of Colonel 
Zachary Taylor — afterwards President of this Re- 
public — established his home near Vicksburg, where, 
pursuing the avocation of a cotton planter, for some 
eight years he led a retired life, devoted to earnest 
thought and intelligent study. Entering the politi- 
cal arena in 1843, in the midst of an exciting guber- 
natorial canvass, he rapidly acquired such popularity 
as a public speaker and as a political leader, that 
two years afterwards he was complimented with a 
seat in the Lower House of the National Congress. 
During this service, and in debates upon prominent 
issues, he bore a leading part ; never once wavering 



334 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

in his devotion to the Union of our fathers, but, on 
the contrary, with loyal lip and ready hand endeav- 
oring to promote the " common glory of our com- 
mon country." 

In June, 1846, he resigned his seat in Congress to 
accept the colonelcy of the First Regiment of Mis- 
sissippi Rifles, to which position he had been unani- 
mously elected. Joining his command at New 
Orleans, he proceeded at once to reinforce General 
Taylor on the Rio Grande and, during our war with 
Mexico, conducted himself with a courage and sol- 
dierly skill which reflected honor upon American 
arms, enriched the history of that important period, 
and won for him, from the chief executive of the 
nation, promotion to the grade of brigadier-general. 

Well do you remember the conspicuous gallantry 
of Colonel Davis when, at Monterey, he stormed 
Fort Leneria without bayonets, and, amid a hurri- 
cane of shot and shell, led his regiment as far as the 
Grand Plaza. At Buena Vista, too, he attracted the 
notice of, and evoked hearty plaudits from, the entire 
army of invasion. It was there, by his celebrated 
V-shaped formation, that, unsupported, with his regi- 
ment he utterly routed a charging brigade of Mexi- 
can Lancers, thrilling the nation by the brilliancy 
and the intrepidity of the movement, and eliciting 
from the commanding general commendation couched 
in the most complimentary terms. It was then, my 



FUNERAL ORATION. 335 

countrymen, that he received a severe wound from 
the effects of which he suffered to the day of his 
death. Yes, my friends, for more than forty years 
Jefferson Davis bore upon his person the marks of a 
painful and well-nigh mortal hurt encountered in 
supporting the flag of his country. 

Entering the United States Senate in 1847, he be- 
came chairman of the committee on military affairs, 
and exerted an influence second to none in the dis- 
cussion and settlement of the important questions 
which then agitated the legislative mind. 

Upon the election of General Pierce as President 
of the United States, Senator Davis accepted from 
his hands the portfolio of war ; and I am persuaded 
that I indulge in no extravagant statement when I 
afiirm that his administration of the affairs of that 
important bureau was more efficient, noteworthy 
and satisfactory than that of any Cabinet officer who 
preceded or has followed him in that position. This 
I believe to be the consentient verdict alike of friend 
and enemy. 

Resuming his seat in the Senate Chamber in 1857, 
he was recognized as the Democratic leader of the 
Thirty-sixth Congress. This distinguished honor he 
maintained, with consummate ability, during a period 
of unusual anxiety and profound responsibility, until 
the secession of Mississippi in January, 18G1, when 
he withdrew from the national councils and returned 



336 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

home, where a commission as commander-in-chief of 
the Army of Mississippi awaited him. 

In this exciting political service no smell of fire 
touched the hem of his garment. No truculent 
spirit contaminated the manhood of his soul. No 
utilitarian methods dwarfed the dignity of his acts, 
or questionable policy impaired the honesty of his 
utterances. With no uncertain voice he denounced 
all partisans who purposed an obliteration of the 
landmarks of the fathers. The doctrine of popular 
sovereignty he utterly repudiated. Carefully distin- 
guishing "between the independence which the 
States had achieved at great cost," and the Union 
which had been compassed by an expenditure of 
"little time, little money, and no blood," he elo- 
quently and effectively maintained the State-rights 
theory which had taken such firm root in the consti- 
tional thought of the Southern people. Although 
the admitted champion of his section, he professed 
and exhibited an abounding love for the Union, and 
avowed a willingness to make any sacrifice, consist- 
ent with the preservation of constitutional liberty, 
to avert the impending struggle. Mr. Davis was no 
political iconoclast — no disunionist in the vulgar ac- 
ceptation of that term. 

In the first volume of his " Rise and Fall of the 
Confederate Government," he has presented in a 
masterly manner his views upon the weighty ques- 



FUNERAL ORATION. 337 

tion of the reserved rights of the States, and has 
submitted to the world an argument which, in my 
judgment, has not yet been answered save by the 
arbitrament of the sword, clearly demonstrating 
that the " Southern States had rightfully the power 
to withdraw from a union into which they had, as 
sovereign communities, voluntarily entered; that 
the denial of that right was a violation of the letter 
and spirit of the compact between the States ; and 
that the war waged by the Federal Government 
against the seceding States was in disregard of the 
limitations of the Constitution, and destructive of 
the principles of the Declaration of Independence." 
I have no desire, my countrymen, in this presence 
and on this occasion, to discuss issues which have 
been, at least for the present, settled at the cannon's 
mouth; and yet, in justice to the illustrious dead, 
who, by ribald tongue has been denounced as a 
" rebel " and a " traitor," in defence of you— brave 
women and gallant men of the South— who fol- 
lowed the fortunes of the Confederacy and who are 
now gathered together to pay homage at the shrine 
of him who occupied the chief seat of honor in the 
day of our nation's hope and peril, I cannot refrain 
from saying, in all truth and soberness, that the 
States never having surrendered their sovereignty, 
" it is a palpable absurdity to apply to them, and to 

their citizens when obeying their mandates, the 
22 



338 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

terms rebellion and treason : that the Confederate 
States, so far from making war against, or seeking to 
destroy the United States, so soon as they had an 
official organ, strove earnestly, by peaceful recogni- 
tion, to equitably adjust all questions growing out 
of the separation from their late associates," and 
that the '" arraignment of the men who participated 
in the formation of the Confederacy and who bore 
arms in its defence as the instigators of a contro- 
versy leading to disunion," is wholly unjustifiable. 

For many years prior to the Civil War the Hon- 
orable Jefferson Davis was one of the most com- 
manding figures in the public eye. His services in 
the Mexican War had won for him military distinc- 
tion, while his intellect, his oratory, his statesman- 
ship and his ability in dealing with questions of 
moment in the Senate of the United States, and in 
conducting the affairs of the bureau of war, were 
admitted by his opponents and applauded by his 
friends. 

In his esteem constitutional liberty was dearer 
than life. Possessing in an extraordinary degree 
those moral traits which are intensified under the 
test of heroic trial, he lived to show to the world 
"the matchless and unconquerable grandeur of 
Southern character." 

" In mind, manners and heart he was a type of 
that old race of Southern gentleman whom these 



FUNERAL ORATION. 33gi 

bustling times are fast crowding out of our civiliza- 
tion." With him fidelity, chivalry, honor and pa^ 
triotism were realities, not words — entities, not ab-^ 
stractions. To the South, and the cause which it 
represented, he remained faithful even unto death. 

On February 9, 1861, in his personal absence, and 
without any solicitation on his part, Mr. Davis was, 
by the Provisional Congress assembled at Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, chosen President of the Confeder- 
ate States. This foremost office in the gift of the 
South he continued to hold until the disastrous con- 
clusion of the Confederate struggle for independence. 
It is historically true that if his inclination had 
been consulted, President Davis would have pre- 
ferred high military command to the station of 
chief executive of the nation. 

Summoning to his aid such heads of departments 
as appeared most suitable, and proclaiming in his 
inaugural address that necessity, not choice, had 
compelled the secession of the Southern States; 
that the true policy of the South — an agricultural 
community — was peace; and that the constituent 
parts, but not the system of the Government, had 
been changed, he bent his every energy to the crea^ 
tion and the confirmation of the Republic newly 
born into the sisterhood of nations. Herculean was 
the effort, involving, as it did, the entire organiza- 
tion of the Confederacy, the accumulation of sup- 



340 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

plies, the consummation of Governmental plans and 
the enlistment, equipment and mobilization of 
armies at a formative period when that union of 
seceding commonwealths was little more than a po- 
litical name. Volunteers there w^ere of exalted 
spirit and capable of the highest endeavor, but the 
problem was how to arm them for efficient service. 
In the language of the venerable historian of Louisi- 
ana : "If Minerva, with w^isdom, courage, justice 
and right, was on the side of the Southern champion, 
it was Minerva not only without any armor, but 
even without the necessary garments to protect her 
against the inclemencies of the weather; whilst on 
the other side stood Mars in full panoply, Ceres with 
her inexhaustible cornucopia, Jupiter with his 
thunderbolts, Neptune with his trident. Mercury 
with his winged feet and emblematic rod, Plutus 
with his hounds and Vulcan with his forge and 
hammer." 

It is even now a marvel, transcending compre- 
hension, that the Confederate States were able so 
rapidly to place in the field large bodies of troops. 
Equally astounding is it that a government, born 
in a day and erected in the midst of a population 
almost wholly agricultural, could so quickly sum- 
mon to its support the entire manhood of the land, 
establish machine-shops and foundries, compass the 
importation and manufacture of quartermaster stores 



FUNERAL ORATION. 341 

and munitions of war, accumulate commissary and 
other supplies at convenient points, erect and man 
heavy batteries, furnish field artillery, place mus- 
kets and sabres in the hands of expectant soldiery, 
and organize the various departments requisite for 
the efficient administration of public affairs ; and all 
this in the face of an impending war of gigantic 
proportions. That President Davis, in the consum- 
mation of this complex and most difficult business, 
evinced a patriotism, an energy, a capacity and a 
devotion worthy of the highest commendation, will 
be freely admitted. 

And what, my friends, shall I say of his conduct 
as Chief Magistrate of the Confederacy during the 
more than four long and bloody years which marked 
the duration of our heroic struggle in defence of 
vested rights and in behalf of a separate national 
existence ? Time would fail me to enumerate even 
the salient points of his overshadowing intervention 
in, and- controlling guidance of, the operations — 
civil and military — appurtenant to that eventful 
epoch. He was the central sun of our system, 
around which all lesser luminaries revolved in sub- 
ordinated orbits. He was the guardian of our na- 
tional honor and the conservator of the public weal. 
Amid trials the most oppressive, and disasters the 
most appalling, he never forfeited the confidence of 
his people, but under all circumstances retained 



342 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

their loves and their allegiance. His messages, 
State papers and public utterances were modela 
alike of statesmanship and of scholarly diction. 
His constant effort was to maintain, upon the high- 
est plane, the purposes and acts of the government. 
Every suggestion was discountenanced which was 
not in harmony with the dictates of the most aj> 
proved international ethics and the principles of 
civilized warfare. In communing with citizens and 
soldiers he inculcated sentiments exalted in their 
character, and counseled every sacrifice necessary 
for the accomplishment of the vital purpose in view. 
His energy in the discharge of the multifarious, per- 
plexing and important duties which devolved upon 
him, never flagged. His sacrifice of self was con- 
spicuous. His spotless integrity, tenacity of convic- 
tions, courage in maintaining his opinions, his en- 
lightened conscience, his resolute temper and hia 
clear conception of right and honor in every rela- 
tion were potent factors in the solution of the tre- 
mendous problems claiming his attention. His reso- 
lution — formed after the most careful consideration 
— was followed with a relentless fidelity. Some 
men thought him dictatorial ; but an iron will, in- 
flexible nerve and the bravest assumption of per- 
sonal responsibility were demanded by the occasion. 
For the guidance of the time and the control of 
events there were no precedents. Action, imme- 



FUNERAL OEATION. 343 

diate, decisive, was the watchword of the hour. 
" They that stand high have many blasts to shake 
them," and the marvel is that he was able to 
endure the tremendous pressure, and to bear the 
burthens incident to the position he occupied and 
consequent upon the perils which environed his be- 
leaguered nation. Some there were who questioned 
the propriety of certain appointments to and re- 
movals from important commands, — criticised his 
plans, and denied the advisability of some of the 
public measures which he favored ; but no one ever 
doubted either the sincerity of his convictions or his 
absolute devotion to the best interests of people and 
government as he comprehended them. Difficult 
beyond expression was the execution of the momen- 
tous trust committed to his keeping. To say that 
he perpetrated no mistakes, would be to proclaim 
him more than mortal. In the light of past events, 
and in expression of the general verdict, this we 
will venture to affirm : that with the resources at 
command, and in view of the desperate odds en- 
countered, President Davis and the Southern peo- 
ple achieved wonders, and accomplished all that the 
purest patriotism, the most unswerving valor, the 
loftiest aspirations and the most patient endurance 
could have compassed. 

" Till the future dares 
Forget the past, 



344 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

the fame of both shall be 

" An echo and a light unto eternity." 

With the surrender of the armies of Generals Lee 
and Johnston, and upon the disintegration of the 
Confederate Government at Washington, Georgia, 
the end came. While attempting to reach the trans- 
Mississippi Department, and cherishing the hope 
that, with the assistance of Generals E. Kirby Smith 
and J. B. Magruder and the forces under their com- 
mand, he would there be able to prolong the strug- 
gle, President Davis was captured by a detachment 
of Federal cavalry. Subjected to petty pillage and 
to annoyances inconsistent with the usages of civil- 
ized warfare, he was conveyed under guard to Fort- 
ress Monroe where, charged with being an accom- 
plice in the assassination of President Lincoln, and 
accused of treason, separated from family and com- 
panions, heavy fetters riveted upon him, he was 
immured in a stone casemate. " Bitter tears have 
been shed by the gentle, and stern reproaches " have 
been uttered by the " magnanimous on account of 
the needless torture " to which he was then sub- 
jected. For two long years did this illustrious pris- 
oner endure this unmerited disgrace, — this unwar- 
ranted and oppressive confinement. Could you, my 
friends, at this moment, with uncovered heads 
approach the coffin which encloses the mortal re- 
mains of our dead President, and reverently lift the 



FUNERAL ORATION. 345 

shroud which enfolds his precious body, you would 
even now discover, on those pale and shrunken 
limbs, the abrasions caused by Federal gyves. Be- 
hold, my countrymen, what he suffered as the repre- 
sentative of the South ! Behold the martyrdom he 
then endured for the alleged sins of his people. He 
was indeed " a nation's prisoner." 

Bravely did he bear himself during this season of 
privation, of loneliness, of insult, and of attempted 
degradation, protracted until satiated by their own 
cruelty and baffled in their rage, the prison doors 
were opened, and the Federal authorities were forced 
to acknowledge that the charge of complicity in the 
assassination of President Lincoln was a lie ; and 
that Jefferson Davis — President of the Confederate 
States — was not a traitor. 

If anything were needed to consecrate his memory 
in the affection and the gratitude of the Southern 
people, it is surely supplied in this vicarious suffer- 
ing, and in the nobleness of spirit with which it was 
endured. 

Time and again since his liberation have the 
shafts of falsehood, of hatred, of detraction, and of 
jealousy, been directed against him; but, success- 
fully parried, they have returned to wound the 
hands which launched them. 

In his quiet home at Beauvoir, ennobled by the 
presence of the live-oak — that monarch of the South- 



346 KEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ern forest — ^beautified by the queenly magnolia- 
grandiflora, redolent of the perfumes of a semi- 
tropical region, fanned by the soft breezes from the 
Gulf, and cheered by exhibitions of respect, affection 
and veneration most sincere, President Davis passed 
the evening of his eventful life. Since the hush of 
that great storm which convulsed this land, he has 
borne himself with a dignity and a composure, with 
a fidelity to Confederate traditions, with a just ob- 
servance of the proprieties of the situation, and 
with an exalted manhood worthy of all admiration. 

Conspicuous for his gallantry and ability as a 
military leader — prominent as a Federal Secretary 
of War — as a Senator and statesman renowned in 
the political annals of these United States — illustri- 
ous for all time as the President of a nation which, 
although maintaining its existence for only a brief 
space, bequeathed glorious names, notable events 
and proud memories, which will survive the flood of 
years — most active, intelligent and successful in vin- 
dicating the aims, the impulses, the rights and the 
conduct of the Southern people during their phe- 
nomenal struggle for independence — his reputation 
abides, unclouded by defeat, unimpaired by the mu- 
tations of fortune and the shadows of disappoint- 
ment. 

Surely no token of affection can be too profuse — 
no mark of respect too emphatic — no rendition of 



FUNERAL ORATION. 347 

honor too conspicuous — no funeral tribute too im- 
posing for this dead chieftain of the South. Dead, 
did I say ? 

" To live in hearts we leave behind 
Is not to die." 

Even now his name is upon every Southern lip, 
and his memory enshrined in every Southern heart. 

Even now, all through this brave Southland, 
funeral bells are tolling his requiem. The bravest 
and the knightliest are reverently bearing his pre- 
cious body to the tomb. Benedictions, invoked by 
lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, are 
descending like the dew of Hermon. Pious drops 
bedew the cheeks of noble women, and the heads 
of stalwart men are bowed in grief. The hour is 
holy, and the occasion most privileged. 

In bidding farewell to our President, we rejoice 
that, by a kind Providence, it was granted unto him 
to spend in our midst 

" His twelve long hoars 
Bright to the edge of darkness ; then the calm 
Repose of twilight — and a crown of stars." 

We rejoice that he was permitted to render back 
his great spirit into the hands of the God who gave 
it, surrounded by devoted friends, accompanied by 
the loves of Southern hearts, and amid the comforts 
of the metropolis of the South. We rejoice that, 
having attained unto the full measure of human 



348 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

life and enjoyed the highest honors which Southern 
hands could offer — all mundane cares overpast — he 
has, as we confidently believe, serenely entered into 
that Upper Realm where there are " trees of unfad- 
ing loveliness, pavements of emerald, canopies of 
brightest radiance, gardens of deep and tranquil se- 
curity, palaces of proud and stately decoration, and 
a city of lofty pinnacles through which there un- 
ceasingly flows the river of gladness, and where ju- 
bilee is ever rung with the concord of seraphic 
voices." 



SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF PRESIDENT 

DAVIS. 

BY MAJOR THOMAS W. UAl,!,. 

T was the fortune of the writer to be in the little 
town of Washington, Georgia, when President 
Jefferson Davis arrived, a few days before his 
capture, in May, 1865. It was during Mr. Davis* 
brief stay in Washington that the last semblance of 
organization of the Confederate Government was 
formally abandoned, and the cavalry force which 
had accompanied Mr. Davis in his journey from 
North Carolina, after the surrender of Johnston's 
army, was finally disbanded. One or two incidents 
which occurred at the time, within the writer's per- 
sonal knowledge and observation, and which illus- 
trate Mr. Davis' dignified bearing at this trying and 
critical period in his life and career, may seem to be 
worth narrating and recording. There were not 
more than two or three persons in Washington who 
knew of Mr. Davis' approach, until his actual ar- 
rival. Such was the difficulty in obtaining news 
from any quarter, that on the very morning of his 
arrival, a group of distinguished Confederates, in- 
cluding one or two Senators, might have been heard 

speculating as to Mr. Davis' possible whereabouts, 

349 



350 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

and discussing the chances of his having been able 
to make his way in safety to the Mississippi River, 
and across to the Trans-Mississippi Department. A 
few hours later Mr. Davis rode into the town, with 
a small escort, including some members of his Cabi- 
net and personal staff, and several general officers. 
He was received and entertained during his brief 
stay, which lasted only until the next morning, be- 
neath the hospitable roof of Dr. Robertson, a citizen 
of Washington, and cashier of the bank at that 
place. Although everj'^ one, and none better than 
Mr. Davis, knew that the end of the long struggle 
had come, his manner was as calm and composed as 
if he were still occupying the President's house in 
Richmond, guarded and defended by the heroic 
legions of Lee. He was still the President, and re- 
spected as such, as much as in the plenitude of his 
power and the most hopeful days of the Confederacy. 
And as such, he bore himself with tranquil dignity. 
One of the incidents referred to occurred shortly 
after his arrival, while he and the principal members 
of his party were seated at dinner. Some of the 
officers present who were graduates of West Point, 
began to discuss their individual future plans. Real- 
izing that the close of the Avar would end their mili- 
tary career at home, they spoke of seeking profes- 
sional employment abroad — in Mexico, Brazil, Egj^t 
— plans which some of them subsequently carried 



SOME RECOLLECTIONS. 351 

into execution. Mr. Davis, who had been listening 
in silence, presently remarked : " Gentlemen, it will 
be time enough for you to be thinking of seeking a 
foreign service when you are sure that your own 
country has no need of your services at home." The 
subject was not renewed in Mr. Davis' presence. 

Later on, the question of the best course for Mr. 
Davis to pursue, to avoid capture and the risk of the 
indignities to which he might be exposed if taken 
prisoner, was discussed by some of his closest and 
most devoted associates and friends. It was stated 
that' Mr. Davis' own idea had been to continue his 
journey westward, with a cavalry escort, and, if 
possible, try to reach the Trans-Mississippi Depart- 
ment. The writer, w^io had just returned from a 
tour of military duty, which had taken him to Ma- 
con, Georgia, at which point he was compelled to 
abandon all effort to reach Columbus and Selma, 
places already in the possession of the Federals, was 
able to furnish information which showed the im- 
possibility of the President, with an escort either 
large or small, being able to pass in safety through a 
country occupied by the Union forces, who were 
then rapidly advancing eastward and spreading 
themselves through the interior of Georgia. There 
was but one way and avenue of escape which seemed 
to be open. That was for Mr. Davis, with a small 
party- — the smaller the better — to proceed directly 



352 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

southward to Florida, and thence escape from the 
coast by boat to Cuba. This plan was thought en- 
tirely' feasible, but upon being submitted to and even 
urged upon Mr. Davis, he rejected it, saying in sub- 
stance, that no circumstances had arisen which could 
induce him to abandon his people, and seek his own 
personal safety in flight. That evening the resolu- 
tion was arrived at in a council of general officers, 
presided over by General Breckinridge, then Secre- 
tary of War, that it was inadvisable to attempt to 
keep together the small cavalry force, two or three 
thousand strong, which had accompanied Mr. Davis, 
and was then encamped a few miles from Washing- 
ton ; and that it was due to the men themselves that 
they should be disbanded and suffered to take their 
arms and horses, and make their way, as they best 
could, to their families and homes. The same day, 
a Cabinet meeting — the last Cabinet meeting of the 
Confederate Government — was held in the room 
occupied by Mr. Davis in Dr. Robertson's house. 
After the meeting adjourned, the writer saw a rough 
draft or minute of a resolution discharging the sev- 
eral heads of departments from the duty of further 
personal attendance upon the Executive. Whether 
such a resolution was actually passed, the writer 
does not know, but if so, such was the formal disso- 
lution of the Confederate Government. The next 
morning, after an early breakfast, accompanied by a 



SOME RECOLLECTIONS. 353 

few friends, among them Judge (now Senator) Rea- 
gan, of Texas, then Postmaster-General of the Con- 
federacy, Mr. Davis set out on horseback to follow 
and overtake Mrs. Davis, who, with a small party, 
had passed through Washington a few days before. 
The circumstances of Mr. Davis' subsequent capture, 
which followed a day or two afterward, have become 
matter of history, and also, it may be said, the sub- 
ject of much misrepresentation. 
23 



MEMORIAL NOTICE OF PRESIDENT 
DAVIS. 

PREPARED AND READ BY MAJOR THOMAS W. HALL, 

At a memorial meeting of the citizens of Baltimore, held under the auspices of the 

Society of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States, in the 

State of Maryland, December ii, 1889. 

MAJOR HALL said : " Since the last shot was 
fired in anger in the war between the States, 
the flowers of more than twenty springs have 
bloomed over the once naked graves of those who 
fell on either side in that great struggle. Surely, 
after the lapse of so many years, and in view of the 
now happily restored political and fraternal relations 
of all the States, we may speak to-day of Jefferson 
Davis, dead and in his tomb, to all the world, as we 
thought and felt of and toward him when living, 
without fear and without risk of incurring the cen- 
sure which justly falls on those who lightly or 
rashly tread — 

* Upon the smouldering fires, 
By deceitful ashes scarce concealed,' 

of recent civil strife. 

" This is not the time or place for attempting any 

extended or elaborate review of the public career or 

personal character of Mr. Davis, nor should I feel 

equal to the task were such expected. The duty 

354 



MEMOKIAL NOTICE. 355 

which has been assigned to me this evening is the 
far less ambitious one of presenting in behalf of the 
Society of the Army and Navy of the Confederate 
States in Maryland, under whose auspices this meet- 
ing is held, a brief memorial notice of our dead leader 
as an expression of the feelings with which we have 
received the announcement of his death, and in 
testimony of the sacred regard in which we shall 
ever hold his memory. I will read, with your per- 
mission, what, at the request of a committee of the 
society, I have prepared : 

" The Society of the Army and Navy of the Con- 
federate States in Maryland have heard with feelings 
of deep emotion of the death of Jefferson Davis, 
once President of the Confederate States of America. 
Dying in the very fulness of years, long withdrawn 
from the activities of a public career, and debarred 
the privilege of serving his countrymen in any pub- 
lic station, the sorrow which the announcement of 
his death calls forth is that of respectful and affec- 
tionate sympathy for his bereaved and stricken fam- 
ily. Having reached the age of more than four- 
score years, many of which were years of trial and 
trouble, only one that ^ hates him '- 

'Upon the rack of this rough world' — 

would have stretched hira longer. 

" With the great events in which he was so great 
an actor his name has long since passed into history, 



356 BEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

and to the impartial verdict of history, yet to be 
written, after the passions and prejudices of the gen- 
eration in which he lived shall have passed away, 
we may confidently commit the guardianship of his 
fame. 

" It is none the less the duty, however, of the 
generation which knew him, and of those who 
trusted, loved and honored him, to place on record 
as their contribution to that history some memorial 
of their estimate of his character and worth. As 
all human judgments are necessarily relative, and, 
both in the moral and physical world, things for the 
most part appear great or small by comparison, it is 
proper to resort to comparison in order to form an 
estimate of Mr. Davis' proper place in the opinions 
of mankind. And the comparison which most nat- 
urally suggests itself, despite the dissimilarity of 
their fortunes, by reason of resemblances in charac- 
ter stronger than any contrast in circumstances, is 
between George Washington, the great and success- 
ful leader in the war of independence, and Jefferson 
Davis, the great though unsuccessful leader in the 
war of secession. In the spirit of the undertakings 
in which they engaged, and which led to such differ- 
ent issues ; in the sincerity of conviction and single- 
ness of purpose by which they were actuated, in the 
austere dignity of their personal presence and bear- 
ing, in the moral elevation of their characters, in 



MEMORIAL NOTICE. 357 

their solemn trust and reliance upon an overruling 
Providence, in their heroic constancy under adverse 
conditions and circumstances, their moderation in 
victory and fortitude in defeat, these two great men 
were singularly alike. Each was a leader in a great 
popular and sectional uprising against existing 
authority. Although success makes all the differ- 
ence in law between a rebel and a patriot, in morals 
Jefferson Davis was no more of a rebel and no less a 
patriot than George Washington. The American 
colonies revolted against the authority of the mother 
country and of the British Government. The South- 
ern States revolted — they did not call it rebellion — 
against the authority of the Federal Union and the 
government which it created. Washington, nur- 
tured in the love of constitutional liberty and in the 
principles of Hampden and Sydney, joined his hand 
and fortunes with the patriots who held that taxa- 
tion without representation was tyranny, and re- 
belled against the claim of royal prerogative. 

"Jefferson Davis, educated in a school of consti- 
tutional construction, which was coeval with the 
constitution, and a firm believer in doctrines which 
he had been taught were those of Madison and Jef- 
ferson, joined his fortunes with those who held that 
the attempted coercion of the seceded States w^as 
federal usurpation. Those who dissent most strongly 
from Mr. Davis' political opinions cannot call in 



358 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

question the sincerity and fervor with which he held 
them. He was as honest and sincere in his convic- 
tion of the rightfulness and the duty of resistance to 
federal coercion of sovereign States as any patriot of 
1776 who took up arms because the British Govern- 
ment sought to enforce the stamp act and imposed a 
tax upon tea. The fact that the revolt of the col- 
onies in 1776 succeeded, and that the attempted 
secession of the Southern States in 1861 failed, can- 
not affect the moral judgment of mankind as to the 
character and motives of the men who took part in 
either movement. 

" Washington defeated and despoiled of his rights 
as a British subject, ending his days at Mount Ver- 
non as a disfranchised rebel, would have been the 
same Washington still. Although he would have 
had to bear all the obloquy which attends defeat, 
would have been stigmatized, doubtless, as the man 
responsible above others for all the bloodshed and 
suffering of the revolutionary struggle, and as owing 
his life and liberty, forfeited by the crime of rebel- 
lion, to royal clemency, his place would have been 
the same in the loving hearts and memories of the 
patriots whose cause he had championed, and of the 
veterans whom he had led to victory at Trenton and 
York town, and whose sufferings he had shared at 
Valley Forge. 

" If Lee and Jackson, rather than Davis, were the 



MEMORIAL NOTICE. 359 

military heroes of the Confederacy, it must be re- 
membered that the responsibilities of the civil head 
of a State seeking to establish its existence by force 
of arms were not less trying than those of a general 
in the field ; that those responsibilities were not of 
Mr. Davis' own seeking, but were thrust upon him, 
and that by education and preference a soldier, it 
would have been his choice to serve the Confederacy 
with his sword. Jefferson Davis will, therefore, live 
in the hearts and memories of the Southern people 
as another Washington, uncrowned by the laurel 
wreaths of victory and the rewards of civic honor 
which fell to the happier lot of the first. The in- 
flexible consistency with which Mr. Davis bore hint- 
self from the close of the war until the last hour of 
his life recalls another comparison. Few persons, 
comparatively, to-day trouble themselves with the 
details or the merits of the strife of Roman factions, 
but the austere unbending figure of Cato occupies 
for all time a niche in the Pantheon of the world's 
greatest men. To Jefierson Davis, firm and unyield- 
ing to the last, bowing submissively to the just de- 
crees of Providence, but bending to no censure or 
opinion of man, we may apply with equal truth and 
appositeness Lucan's famous line : 

' Victrix causa dcis placuit, sed victa Catoni.' 

'' It is especially appropriate that Marylanders 
should unite in a public tribute to the memory of 



360 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Mr. Davis, for to all Marylanders who espoused the 
Confederate cause, and thereby made themselves 
exiles from their homes, Mr. Davis was ever particu- 
larly sympathetic and kind, and they should mourn 
him not only as their leader, but as their friend." 



M ^ 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 

BY HON. HIIvARY A. HERBERT. 

Member of Congress from Celtfoti»i€U<«wu«'^°** 

"* * Callidus juventa 
Consule Planco." — Horat. 

"In my hot youth, when George the Third was King." — Byeon. 

I WAS never in the immediate presence of Mr. 
Davis but once ; so these reminiscences must 
consist principally of the impressions made by 
the President of the Confederacy upon a young sol- 
dier in the field. The recollections of one who saw 
and felt the power of the man from that stand-point 
may be helpful to him who would to-day picture ac- 
curately in his mind the President of the Confeder- 
acy as he moved amid the heroic forms that sur- 
rounded him from 1861 to 1865. It is not alone by 
the touch of the hand, the glance of the eye or the 
magnetic sound of the voice that a leader of men 
impresses his personality on those who environ him. 
His intellect quickens, his spirit infuses, his hand is 
felt in spite of physical distance almost as if he were 
visibly present. And most emphatically was this 
true of Mr. Davis. 

His selection as Provisional President by the Con- 
gress which met at Montgomery February 4th, 

361 



362 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

1861, was ratified by the people of the new Govern- 
ment with wonderful unanimity. It was the com- 
mon thought : "■ The man and the hour have met." 
The man had been educated as a soldier, acquired 
experience in early life in the army ; then resigning, 
had by severe study in private life trained himself 
for the duties of statesmanship ; had won fame in 
the Mexican War; had administered with distin- 
guished success the War Department of the Govern- 
ment, and in the Senate of the United States as a de- 
fender of the rights of his section was ^^ primus inter 
jmres" When to all this it is added that Mr. Davis 
was a man of singular personal purity, it is easy to 
understand the pride and satisfaction with which the 
people of the Confederacy hailed him as their chief. 

That about him which most impressed the writer 
of this brief and hurried memoir was the great abil- 
ity of his State papers. To call attention to these is 
the chief purpose of this contribution. Extracts 
will also be given liberal enough, not only to exem- 
plify the conspicuous literary excellence of these 
papers, but also to serve as a contemporaneous state- 
ment of the case of the Confederacy by its President. 
Mr. Davis' messages have never been published, as 
the writer understands, since the close of the war, 
and can, it is believed, only be found in collected 
form among the archives of the War Department at 
Washington. 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 363 

If one would see from a Southern stand-point the 
reasons upon which the Confederacy grounded itseh", 
and would look upon the progress of the war as the 
Confederates saw it^ he should read these papers. A 
more elaborate exposition of the doctrine of States' 
rights, as then held in the South, is contained in the 
first volume of the " Rise and Fall of the Confederate 
Government." There is to be found what the writer 
deems the most masterly and thorough argument for 
secession ever made ; but the'messages present the 
question in shorter and more attractive form. 

The style of Jefferson Davis is always clear, com- 
pact and nervous ; his thoughts never fail to be ad- 
mirably arranged, and the earnestness of deep con- 
viction pervades all his writings; but these commu- 
nications to the Confederate Congress were his mas- 
terpieces. 

The eyes of the world were upon him. He was 
the head of a people struggling for recognition 
among the nations of the earth. By the people of 
all these nations his words would be read and pon- 
dered. If he would win their respect, he must not 
pervert the history of the past or misrepresent the 
present. The papers were equal to the occasion 
that called them forth. They were read and ad- 
mired by the statesmen and savants of the world ; 
they dignified the cause of the Confederacy abroad 
and were greeted at home with the liveliest satisfac- 



364 REMINISCENX:ES of JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

tion. There, nothing contributed more to broaden 
and intensify the conviction already fixed in the 
minds of the majority, that, if fight they must, it 
was to be in a cause that was justified alike by the 
laws of man and of God. 

In the message of April 29th, 1861, the case of 
the Confederate States is thus stated : 

" During the war waged against Great Britain by 
her colonies on this continent, a common danger im- 
pelled them to a close alliance, and to the formation 
of a confederation, by the terms of which the colo- 
nies, styling themselves States, entered ^severally 
into a firm league of friendship with each other for 
their common defence, the security of their liberties, 
and their mutual and general welfare, binding them- 
selves to assist each other against all force offered to, 
or attacks made upon them or any of them, on ac- 
count of religion, sovereignty, trade or any other 
pretence whatever.' 

"In order to guard against any misconstruction 
of their compact, the several States made explicit 
declaration, in a distinct article, that ^ each State 
retains its sovereignty, freedom, independence, and 
every power, jurisdiction and right which is not 
by this confederation ^expressly delegated to the 
United States in Congress assembled.' 

" Under this contract of alliance, the war of the 
Revolution was successfully waged, and resulted 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 365 

in the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, 
by the terms of which the several States were, 
each hy riame, recognized to be independent.' 

" The articles of confederation contained a clause 
whereby all alterations were prohibited unless con- 
firmed by Legislatures of every State, after being 
agreed to by Congress ; and in obedience to this 
provision under the resolution of Congress of the 
21st of February, 1787, the several States appointed 
delegates who attended a Convention for the sole 
and express 'purpose of revising the articles of con- 
federation, and reporting to Congress and the sev- 
eral Legislatures such alterations and provisions 
therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress and 
confirmed hy the States, render the Federal Consti- 
tution adequate to the exigencies of government 
and the preservation of the Union. 

" It was, by the delegates chosen, by the several 
States under the resolution just quoted, that the 
Constitution of the United States was framed in 
1787, aild submitted to the several States for rati- 
fication, as shown by the 7th article, which is in 
these words : 

'^^The ratification of the Conventions of nine 
States shall be sufficient for the establishment of 
this Constitution between the States so ratifying 
the same.' 

'• I have italicized several words in the quota- 



366 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

tions just made for the purpose of attracting atr 
tention to the singuhir and marked caution with 
which the States endeavored in everj possible 
form, to exclude the idea that the separate and 
independent sovereignty of each State was merged 
into one common government and nation, and the 
earnest desire they evinced to impress on the 
Constitution its true character — that of a compact 
BETWEEN independent States. 

"The Constitution of 1787 having, however, 
omitted the clause already recited from the articles 
of Confederation, which provided in explicit terms, 
that each State retained its sovereignty and inde- 
pendence, some alarm was felt in the States when 
invited to ratify the Constitution, lest this omission 
should be construed into an abandonment of their 
cherished principle, and they refused to be satisfied 
until amendments were added to the Constitution, 
placing beyond any pretence of doubt, the reserva- 
tion by the States of all their sovereign rights and 
powers — not expressly delegated to the United States 
by the Constitution. 

" Strange indeed must it appear to the impartial 
observer, but it is none the less true, that all these 
carefully worded clauses proved unavailing to pre- 
vent the rise and growth in the Northern States of 
a political school which has persistently claimed 
that the government thus formed was not a compact 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. • 367 

hehveen States, but was in effect a national gcverii- 
ment set up above and over the States. 

" An organization, created by the States to secure 
the blessings of liberty and independence, against 
foreign aggression, has been gradually perverted into 
a machine for their control in their domestic affairs : 
the creature has been exalted above its creators ; the 
princijxih have been made subordinate to the agent 
appointed by themselves. 

" The people of the Southern States, whose almost 
exclusive occupation was agriculture, early perceived 
a tendency in the Northern States to render the 
common government subservient to their purposes, 
by imposing burthens on commerce as a protection 
to their manufacturing and shipping interests. 

" Long and angry controversy grew out of these 
attempts, often successful, to benefit one section of 
the country at the expense of the other. 

" And the danger of disruption arising from this 
cause was enhanced by the fact that the Northern 
population was ihcreasing by immigration and other 
causes in a greater ratio than the population of the 
South. By degrees as the Northern States gained 
preponderance in the National Congress, self-interest 
taught tlieir people to yield ready assent to any 
plausible advocacy of their right as a majority to 
govern the minority without control : they learned 
to listen with impatience to the suggestion of any 



368 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

constitutional impediment to the exercise of their 
will ; and so utterly have the principles of the Con- 
stitution been corrupted in the Northern mind, that 
in the inaugural address delivered by President 
Lincoln in March last, he asserts as an axiom which 
he plainly deems to be undeniable, that the theory 
of the Constitution requires that in all cases the 
majority shall govern; and in another memorable 
instance, the same Chief Magistrate did not hesitate 
to liken the relations between a State and the United 
States to those which exist between a county and 
the State in which it is situated and by which it was 
created. 

"This is the lamentable and fundamental error 
on which rests the policy that has culminated in his 
declaration of war against these Confederate States. 

" In addition to the long-continued and deep-seated 
resentment felt by the Southern States at the per- 
sistent abuse of the powers they had delegated to the 
Congress, for the pur]30se of enriching the manu- 
facturing and shipping classes of the North at the 
expense of the South, there has existed for nearly 
half a century another subject of discord, involving 
interests of such transcendent magnitude, as at all 
times to create the apprehension in the minds of 
many devoted lovers of the Union, that its perma- 
nence was impossible. 

" When the several States delegated certain powers 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 369 

to the United States Congress, a large portion of the 
laboring population consisted of African slaves im- 
ported into the colonies bj the mother country. 

" In twelve out of the thirteen States, negro 
slavery existed, and the right of property in slaves 
was protected by law. 

" This property was recognized in the Constitu- 
tion, and provision was made against its loss by the 
escape of the slave. The increase in the number of 
slaves by further importation from Africa was also 
secured by a clause forbidding Congress to prohibit 
the slave trade anterior to a certain date ; and in no 
clause can there be found any delegation of power to 
the Congress authorizing it in any manner to legis- 
late to the prejudice, detriment or discouragement of 
the owners of that species of property, or excluding 
it from the protection of the government. 

" The climate and soil of the Northern States soon 
proved unpropitious to the continuance of slave 
labor, whilst the converse was the case at the South. 
Under the unrestricted free intercourse between the 
two sections, the Northern States consulted their 
own interest by selling their slaves to the South, and 
prohibiting slavery within their limits. The South 
were willing purchasers of a property suitable to 
their wants, and paid the price of the acquisition 
without harboring a suspicion that their quiet pos- 
session was to be disturbed by those who were in- 
24 



370 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

hibited, not only by want of constitutional authority, 
but by good faith as vendors, from disquieting a title 
emanating from themselves. 

"As soon, however, as the Northern States that 
prohibited African slavery within their limits had 
reached a number sufficient to give their representa- 
tion a controlling voice in the Congress, a persistent 
and organized system of hostile measures against the 
right of the owners of slaves in the Southern States 
was inaugurated, and gradually extended. A con- 
tinuous series of measures was devised and prosecuted 
for the purpose of rendering insecure the tenure of 
property in slaves : fanatical organizations, supplied 
with money by voluntary subscriptions, were assidu- 
ously engaged in exciting among the slaves a spirit 
of discontent and revolt ; means were furnished for 
their escape from their owners, and agents secretly 
employed to entice them to abscond ; the constitu- 
tional provision for their rendition to their owners 
was first evaded, then openly denounced as a viola- 
tion of conscientious obligation and religious duty ; 
men were taught that it was a merit to elude, dis- 
obey, and violently oppose the execution of the laws 
enacted to secure the performance of the promises 
contained in the constitutional compact ; owners of 
slaves were mobbed, and even murdered in open 
day, solely for applying to a magistrate for the ar- 
rest of a fugitive slave ; the dogmas of these volun- 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 371 

tary organizations soon obtained control of the legis- 
latures of many of the Northern States, and lawb 
were passed providing for the punishment by ruinous 
fines and long continued imprisonment in jails and 
penitentiaries, of citizens of the Southern States, who 
should dare to ask aid of the officers of the law for 
the recovery of their property. 

" Emboldened by success, the theatre of agitation 
and aggression against the clearly expressed consti- 
tutional rights of the Southern States was trans- 
ferred to the Congress; Senators and Representar 
tives were sent to the common councils of the 
nation, whose chief title to this distinction consisted 
in the display of a spirit of ultra fanaticism, and 
whose business was, not ' to promote the general 
welfare or ensure domestic tranquillity,' but to awa- 
ken the bitterest hatred against the citizens of sister 
States by violent denunciations of their institutions ; 
the transaction of public affairs was impeded by re- 
peated efforts to usurp powers not delegated by the 
Constitution, for the purpose of impairing the secu- 
rity of property in slaves, and reducing the States 
which held slaves to a condition of inferiority. Fi- 
nally, a great party was organized for the purpose 
of obtaining the administration of the government, 
with the avowed object of using its power for the 
total exclusion of the slave States from all partici- 
pation in the benefit of the public domain, acquired 



372 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DA Via 

by all the States in common, whether by conquest 
or purchase ; of surrounding them entirely by States 
in which slavery should be prohibited ; of thus ren- 
dering the property in slaves so insecure as to be 
comparatively worthless, and thereby annihilating 
in effect property worth thousands of millions of 
dollars. 

"This party, thus organized, succeeded in the 
month of November last in the election of its candi- 
date for the Presidency of the United States. 

"In the mean time, under the mild and genial cli- 
mate of the Southern States and the increasing care 
and attention for the well-being and comfort of the 
laboring class, dictated alike by interest and hu- 
manity, the African slaves had augmented in num- 
ber from 600,000, at the date of the adoption of the 
constitutional compact, to upwards of 4,000,000. 
In moral and social condition they had been ele- 
vated from brutal savages into docile, intelligent 
and civilized agricultural laborers, and supplied not 
only with bodily comforts, but with careful religious 
instruction. 

*•' Under the supervision of a superior race, their 
labor had been so directed as not only to allow a 
gradual and marked amelioration of their condition, 
but to convert hundreds of thousands of square 
miles of wilderness into cultivated lands, covered 
with a prosperous people; towns and cities had 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 373 

sprung into existence, and had rapidly increased in 
wealth and population under the social system of 
the South ; the white population of the Southern 
slave-holding States had augmented from about 
1,250,000 at the date of the adoption of the Consti- 
tution, to more than 8,500,000 in 1860 ; and the 
productions of the South in cotton, rice, sugar and 
tobacco, for the full development and continuance 
of which the labor of African slaves was and is in- 
dispensable, had swollen to an amount which formed 
nearly three-fourths of the exports of the whole 
United States, and had become absolutely necessary 
to the wants of civilized man. 

" With interests of such overwhelming magnitude 
imperilled, the people of the Southern States were 
driven by the conduct of the North to the adoption 
of some course of action to avert the danger with 
which they were openly menaced. 

" With this view, the Legislatures of the several 
States invited the people to select delegates to Con- 
ventions, to be held for the purpose of determining 
for themselves what measures were best adapted to 
meet so alarming a crisis in their history. 

" Here it may be proper to observe that from a 
period as early as 1798 there had existed in all of 
the States of the Union a party, almost uninterrupt- 
edly in the majority, based upon the creed that 
each State was, in the last resort, the sole' judge as 



374 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

well of its wrongs as of the mode and measure of 
redress. Indeed, it is obvious that, under the law 
of nations, this principle is an axiom as applied to 
the relations of independent sovereign States, such 
as those which had united themselves under the 
constitutional compact. The Democratic Party of 
the United States repeated, in its successful canvass 
in* 1856, the declaration made in numerous previous 
political contests, that it would ' faithfully abide by 
and uphold the principles laid down in the Ken- 
tucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798, and in the 
report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legislature 
in 1799, and that it adopts those principles as con- 
stituting one of the main foundations of its political 
creed.' 

^' The principles thus emphatically announced, em- 
brace that to which I have already adverted, — the 
right of each to judge of and redress the wrongs of 
which it complains. These principles were main- 
tained by overwhelming majorities of the people of 
all the States of the Union at different elections, 
especially in the elections of Mr. Jefferson in 1805, 
Mr. Madison in 1809 and Mr. Pierce in 1852. 

" In the exercise of a right so ancient, so well 
established and so necessary for self-preservation, the 
people of the Confederate States in their conven- 
tions, determined that the wrongs which they had 
suffered, and the evils with which they were men- 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 375 

aced, required that they should revoke the delegation 
of powers to the Federal Government which they had 
ratified in their several conventions. They conse- 
quently passed ordinances resuming all their rights 
as sovereign and independent States, and dissolved 
their connection with the other States of the Union." 

This message was written after the fall of Fort 
Sumter. It will be curious to many modern readers 
to run over a portion of what Mr. Davis said about 
the firing of the first gun of the war. That gun 
had electrified the North. Thousands sprang to 
arms who had been hesitating. The "rebels had 
fired on the flag." The Secessionists had precipitated 
war while multitudes of patriotic citizens were still 
praying and planning and even hoping for the con- 
tinuance of peace. This was the Northern view of 
the question, and it is the theory accepted in the 
current history of to-day. The Union prevailed in 
the contest that was then beginning. Her courts 
have construed the conduct and her historians have 
written the story of the war. 

History as written hereafter, may not and proba- 
bly will not, accept fully either the Federal or Con- 
federate version. But one thing is beyond perad- 
venture. The Confederates had been led to believe 
that Fort Sumter, commanding Charleston Harbor, 
was not to be victualed, that the United States forces 
there under Major Anderson were not to be placed 



376 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

in a condition to continue the siege of the city. 
Nothing puts in so sharp a contrast the views then 
held North and South as Fort Sumter. The attempt 
by the Federal Government to provision it was 
looked upon in the South as a first step in the parri- 
cidal crime of coercing a sovereign State. 

President Davis in his message, after a narrative 
ending with the fall of Sumter, says : 

" In this connection I cannot refrain from a well- 
deserved tribute to the noble State, the eminent sol- 
dierly qualities of whose people were so conspicuously 
displayed in the port of Charleston. For months 
they had been irritated by the spectacle of a fortress 
held within their principal harbor, as a standing 
menace against their peace and independence. Built 
in part with their own money, its custody confided 
with their own consent to an agent who held no 
power over them, other than such as they had them- 
selves delegated for their own benefit, intended to be 
used by that agent for their own protection against 
foreign attack, they saw it held with persistent tena- 
city as a means of ofience against them by the very 
government which they had established for their 
protection. They had beleaguered it for months — 
felt entire confidence in their power to capture it, — 
yet yielded to the requirements of discipline, curbed 
their impatience, submitted without complaint to the 
unaccustomed hardships, labors and privations of a 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 377 

protracted siege ; and when at length their patience 
was rewarded by the signal for attack, and success 
had crowned their steady and gallant conduct — even 
in the very moment of triumph, they evinced a 
chivalrous regard for the feelings of the brave but 
unfortunate officer who had been compelled to lower 
his flag. All manifestations of exultation were 
checked in his presence. Their commanding general, 
with their cordial approval and the consent of his 
government, refrained from imposing any terms that 
could wound the sensibilities of the commander of 
the Fort. He was permitted to retire with the hon- 
ors of war — to salute his flag, to depart freely with 
all his command, and was escorted to the vessel in 
which he embarked, with the highest m^arks of re- 
spect from those against whom his guns had been so 
recently directed. Not only does every event con- 
nected with the siege reflect the highest honor on 
South Carolina, but the forbearance of her people and 
of this government, from making any harsh use of a 
victory obtained under circumstances of such peculiar 
provocation, attest to the fullest extent the absence of 
any purpose beyond securing their own tranquillity, 
and the sincere desire to avoid the calamities of the 
war." 

Tennessee that, by a vote of many thousands, 
had indicated her intention to remain in the Union, 
almost before the sound of the Fort Sumter guns 



378 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

had died away, voted herself out by an immense 
majority. So in North Carolina and so it was in 
Virginia. 

Between sections holding such diverse views 
war was inevitable. It had already begun, the 
seceding and adhering States each holding the 
other responsible for its commencement. 

It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm that 
pervaded the South. Banners were flying and 
drums were beating. The heroic age had come 
again. The day of the Almighty Dollar was gone. 
Money, ease, luxury, all these were as nought 
when liberty, the right of self-government that our 
fathers had fought for, was at stake. 

It was on a bright morning in the latter part 
of the month of May, 18G1, that a company from 
Butler County, Alabama — the Greenville Guards — 
boarded the cars bound for the seat of war in 
Virginia. The writer of this had been chosen Captain, 
and was in charge, but he had received no com- 
mission and none of the men or officers had been 
mustered in. Their enlistment, however, needed 
no sanction then from the law. They had volun- 
teered to fight together the battles of their country 
and were on their way to the front. The spirit 
that animated the Captain and each of his men 
was aptly described by Mr. Davis when he said, 
in concluding his message of April 29 th : 



MR. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 379 

"We feel that our cause is just and holy; we 
protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we 
desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor and 
independence ; we seek no conquest, no aggrandize- 
ment, no concession of any kind from the States 
with which we were lately confederated; all we 
ask is to be let alone ; that those who never held 
power over us shall not now atteraj^t our subju- 
gation by arms. This we will, this we must re- 
sist to the direst extremity. The moment that 
this pretension is abandoned, the sword will drop 
from our grasp and we shall be ready to enter 
into treaties of amity and commerce that cannot 
but be mutually beneficial. So long as this pre- 
tension is maintained, with a firm reliance on that 
Divine Power which covers with its protection 
the just cause, we will continue to struggle for 
our inherent right to freedom, independence and 
self-government." 

This feeling pervaded the whole country ; it was 
manifest everywhere. At every station men, women 
and children were gathered to bid the soldiers God- 
speed. 

At Covington, Georgia, the young ladies of a Fe- 
male College had come down to the cars to greet 
us with flowers and refreshments. They gave an 
immense and beautiful bouquet to the young captain. 
We had learned that Mrs. Davis, the wife of the 



380 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

President, was on board, traveling without especial 
escort to Richmond. As soon as the fair donors of 
the bouquet were left behind, Captain Herbert ap- 
proached and, in the happiest phrases he could com- 
mand, presented it to Mrs. Davis, proffering at the 
same time his Company as a guard of honor. She 
was very gracious, invited the young officer to lunch 
with her, and in a short time had taken him com- 
pletely captive. Since she left the train at Rich- 
mond I have never seen Mrs. Davis. If these lines 
shall ever meet her eyes, let me convey to her 
through this medium the lasting gratitude of the 
young man who cherishes still the memory of the 
pleasant moments he spent in her presence. She 
has probably forgotten him. He will never cease to 
remember her. She appeared then to be twenty- 
eight or thirty years old, tall, queenly and hand- 
some, making no effort at sprightliness of manner, but 
she was always earnest, unaffected and womanly. 

Shortly after our arrival in Richmond the officers 
of the ten companies which were to form the Eighth 
Alabama Regiment met and selected three of their 
number as field officers, Major, Lieutenant-Colonel 
and Colonel. As the writer was not of these, he 
became one of a committee to wait upon President 
Davis and ask him to commission the officers we had 
thus, without authorization, elected. Mr. Davis re- 
ceived us pleasantly, listened attentively to all we 



ME. DAVIS' STATE PAPERS. 381 

had to say, and then told us he had other plans for 
the regiment. He was very courteous and explained 
at some length why he could not comply with our 
wishes. The interview impressed us all with the 
idea that the President knew what he was about, 
though it is quite probable that the gentlemen who 
failed to get the positions to which they had been 
chosen were of a different opinion. 

The writer never saw Mr. Davis again. But he 
remembers well that though he did not accept with- 
out question the wisdom of his every act, he never 
failed to admire every document that came from the 
President of the Confederacy. Not only did he state 
with unsurpassed cleverness the political case of the 
Confederacy, but his discussions of the manner in 
which the war was conducted by the enemy, of cam- 
paigns, of the law of blockage and the rights of 
neutrals, and his appeals to the spirit and patriotism 
of the people were all such as could only come from 
a statesman of ripe culture, rare ability and sincere 
patriotism. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

BY HON. W. C. P. BRKCKINRIDGE. 
Member of Congress from Kentucky. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS was born in what is now 
Todd County, Kentucky, on the 3d day of 
June, 1808, and was a student at the Transyl- 
vania University in the City of Lexington, Ky., 
when he received his warrant as cadet at the Mili- 
tary Academy of West Point. His first wife was a 
Kentucky girl, the daughter of Zachary Taylor ; and 
during his life he was intimately connected with a 
good many of the most distinguished Kentuckians of 
that period. 

His father was a farmer, in the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky sense of that word; a man owning slaves and 
living upon and managing the land which was tilled 
by those slaves 5 and the early boyhood of Mr. 
Davis was spent upon a Kentucky farm. There 
cannot be a more simple, moral and happy life than 
that of the average Virginia and Kentucky farmer ; 
the influences which surround children born and 
reared in such families were good, and only good. 
The constant open air exercise ; the habitual work 
required ; the frequent out-door sports ; the necessary 

horse-back exercise ; the simple but nutritious food ; 
382 



JEFFEESON DAVIS. 383 

developed to the highest capacity the physical facul- 
ties. The boys unconsciously became expert shots, 
daring and skillful horsemen, ready and handy in 
every form of agricultural labor, stout, active and 
graceful ; keen and accurate of eye ; ready, skillful 
and expert of hand. The moral influence was 
equally beneficent; daily family prayers and the 
constant and open recognition of the presence of an 
overruling Providence, and the habitual and reverent 
instruction in religious truths, made the children of 
such a household sincere and earnest believers in the 
Bible and its truths, even when they did not profess 
to be Christians and in their daily life were not con- 
trolled by its regulations. The simple rudiments 
of the field school were well taught, and while the 
curriculum was comparatively narrow, it was thor- 
ough, and laid the foundation of any educational and 
intellectual superstructure that the ambition, intel- 
lect and opportunities of the scholar might urge him 
to build thereon. 

When Mr. Davis, a mere lad, entered West Point 
he was a high but still a fair type of the southwest- 
ern country lad ; above average height, muscular, 
athletic, expert, a keen sportsman, a graceful rider, 
a fine shot, a good dancer; in morals clean, truthful, 
admirable ; in mind earnest, thoughtful, well pre- 
pared and well-trained. His training at West Point 
developed his better qualities, and when he grad- 



384 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 

uated he was thoroughly prepared for a brilliant 
army career either in peace or war ; and from the 
day on which he received his commission until the 
day of his death, an old and broken man, it is not 
too much to say that he never faced an emergency 
which either dazed, surprised or confused him. 
During that long and marvelous career he had the 
thorough command of himself and all his faculties. 

It is not within the scope of the duty allotted to 
me to give any account of his deeds or any history 
of his life. But the personality of Mr. Davis was so 
marked and so impressive that no one ever came 
into contact with him, even the most casual and in- 
cidental, who was not impressed therewith. And it 
is this which made the most lasting impression on 
me in the few personal interviews I had with him, 
and in the somewhat rare occasions when I came 
into personal relations with him. 

It so happened that I reached Richmond, Virginia, 
late on Saturday, July 20th, 1861, the evening be- 
fore the Battle of Manassas, and that I had an inter- 
view with Mr. Davis on the Thursday succeeding 
that battle — an interview concerning the state of 
affairs in 'Kentucky, the policy which ought to be 
pursued by the Confederate Government towards 
such Kentuckians as desired to enter the Confederate 
service, and the action which Mr. Davis might see 
his way clear to take in the acceptance and organi- 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 385 

zation of these Kentuckians. It was to me an en- 
tirely unsatisfactory interview; he declined in the 
most positive, though kindly and gentle manner to 
do or authorize to be done every thing which I urged 
upon him ; and our views did not at all agree. 

In the winter of ] 864, after the romantic escape 
of General John H. Morgan from the Columbus Pen- 
itentiary, I was ordered to Richmond, and was pres- 
ent at an interview between Mr. Davis and General 
Morgan ; and the views earnestly pressed by General 
Morgan and in which I cordially shared were not 
agreeable to Mr. Davis and did not receive his ap- 
proval, though his personal bearing was exceedingly 
complimentary to General Morgan and personally 
kind to the younger officers who were present. 

In April, 1865, the cavalry division of General 

Geo. G. Dibrell, of Tennessee, which consisted of a 

Tennessee brigade under Colonel McLemore, and a 

Kentucky brigade of which I was then in command, 

was ordered to report to Mr. Davis at Greensborough, 

North Carolina; and that division remained with 

him from about April the 15th until May the 3d, 

when it divided, the larger part accepting the terms 

of surrender agreed upon between Generals Johnston 

and Sherman, and the smaller part delaying their 

surrender for some days. During this march from 

Greensborough to Washington, Georgia, covering 

that period of the disintegration of the Confederacy, 
25 



386 EEMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

from the middle of April to the first days in May, 
necessarily I saw much of Mr. Davis and his cabinet 
and the officers of rank who were with him. One of 
the most striking scenes I recall is of a conference held 
at the residence of Mr. Burt, at Abbeville, South 
Carolina, on the afternoon of May the 1st, at which 
conference Mr. Davis presided, and General Bragg, 
John C. Breckinridge, then acting Secretary of War, 
John 0. Vaughan of Tennessee, General Dibrell of 
Tennessee, General S. W. Ferguson of Mississippi, 
General Basil W. Duke of Kentucky and I were 
present. The surrender of the army of General 
Johnston had taken place some days prior thereto. 
General Wilson had captured Macon and substantially 
closed the war west of Washington, Georgia ; Mo- 
bile had fallen, and the only organized troops east of 
the Mississippi River of which we had any knowl- 
edge were the five small cavalry brigades commanded 
by the five cavalry officers present at the conference. 
The result of that conference was that Mr. Davis 
pushed on to Washington, Ga., crossing the Savan- 
nah River, with the purpose of making his way to 
the trans-Mississippi. His speedy capture, caused 
by an unfortunate report of danger to his wife, which 
made him change his course and join her, of course 
put an end to any possibility, if indeed there was 
any such possibility, of any continuance of hostili- 
ties. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 387 

I have never seen Mr. Davis since we separated 
that May afternoon in Abbeville. 

On all these occasions the impression of the per- 
sonal virtues, capacity and power of Mr. Davis con- 
stantly deepened. He was an absolutely frank, 
direct and positive man ; he never paltered in any 
double sense with any one ; he made himself thor- 
oughly and perfectly understood; he consented or 
refused to do with entire frankness, so that no one 
ever justly left him with a doubtful impression as to 
what his views were or what would be his conduct. 
He was veracious in the highest sense of that 
phrase, — not merely truthful in the narration of 
past occurrences or accurate in his utterances, but 
of the highest integrity of thought and act and life ; 
and this was, of course, accompanied with the most 
intrepid courage, for superb veracity of character is 
based on dauntless courage — that universal courage 
which is sometimes separated and called physical or 
mental or moral ; his pervaded every quality of his 
nature. He never knew what it was to fear an 
adversary in any arena. As lieutenant on the 
frontier; as commander of a regiment in the crisis 
at Buena Vista; as Secretary of War in the con- 
flicting debates with distinguished officers; on the 
stump in Mississippi, with able and adroit debaters ; 
in the Senate of the United States in perhaps its 
ablest and brightest period ; at the head of the Cab- 



388 KEMINLSCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

inet councils during the darkest day of the Confed- 
erate War, amid the disastrous and disintegrating 
days when he saw the Confederacy going to pieces 
around him; bearing the cruelties inflicted upon 
him in the casemate at Fortress Monroe ; a disfran- 
chised citizen of the Republic; or as an old man, 
calmly facing death, — he exhibited the same calm, 
composed and unaffected intrepidity. This combined 
courage and veracity made him a pure man in all 
the relations of private and public life, so that during 
all the years in which malignancy searched with 
microscopic power for a flaw in his life or conduct, 
there was never found a single act of which any 
friend need be ashamed, nor a single word which 
might not have been uttered in the presence of his 
wife or to his daughter. 

This is a superb life, — so veracious that no man 
was ever deceived, so intrepid that no duty was 
ever shirked, and so pure that no flaw was ever 
found. 

To these great personal qualities were added un- 
usual mental gifts. It ma}'^ be hereafter held that 
Mr. Davis did not belong to the rank of the very 
greatest intellects ; that those who followed him had 
fair ground to claim that he did, will be granted 
readily by those who studied most closely what he 
did rather than merely what he uttered. For while 
Mr. Davis was an orator of high rank, a debater of 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 389 

unusual power and a writer of pure and forcible 
English, he will perhaps hereafter rank higher as 
an executive officer and as a man of action than as 
an orator or writer. His State papers are indeed 
models, and his short speeches are among the very 
highest specimens of that form of public oratory; 
but when we attempt to measure what was done by 
him and under his supervision, it may well be ad- 
mitted that he was greater in the cabinet and as a 
man of action than as a man of speech. He is 
easily the peer of the very greatest Secretary of 
War which our Government has ever had, and he 
administered the affairs of that important depart- 
ment with uncommon skill, exhibiting the highest 
administrative ability. 

What he did as President of the Confederate 
States has not yet been entirely ascertained and 
published. The history of the military operations 
during the war is so much more attractive that it 
has obscured the investigation into, and the neces- 
sary publication of the facts connected with the civil 
administration of the Government; using the word 
civil as including all that was necessary for the 
maintenance of order, the preservation of liberty, 
the organization of the armies, the obtaining and 
furnishing of the munitions of war, and the main- 
tenance of the troops in the field. No one has ever 
doubted that Mr, Davis was in fact the President, 



390 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

and that as President, he was Commander-in-chief. 
The charge made most often against him is, that his 
imperious will and his obstinate and unyielding dis- 
position and his inflexible purpose made him too 
much the Commander-in-chief, and hampered with 
unnecessary, if not improper restrictions the com- 
manding generals in the field; but, taken as a 
whole, when the contrast between the two combat- 
ants in that great struggle is accurately drawn, the 
world will assign to Mr. Davis a position which has 
not yet been accorded to him. 

There never was a more unequal contest. The 
South fought at every disadvantage. Its white pop- 
ulation was about five and a half millions. Its 
arms-bearing population was less than nine hundred 
thousand, and the populous and powerful States of 
Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and 
Virginia were divided with perhaps the larger part 
of their population against the South. It did not 
have a regular military organization nor a regular 
soldier ; it was without even the form and semblance 
of an army ; without a ship of war, or a navy yard 
in which a ship could be made ; it had but few guns, 
and those of antique patterns, inferior, and many 
practically useless ; it had not a manufactory in all 
its limits where any part of a gun or any part of its 
munitions could be made ; it was without money or 
organized credit ; before it had fairly organized its 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 391 

Government, its ports were blockaded with a rigor- 
ous and effectual blockade, so that the markets of 
the world were absolutely shut to it ; and it had no 
medicines for its sick, no means of obtaining the 
simplest necessaries of a hospital, no factories at 
which the clothing or blankets of the soldiers could 
be fabricated, and no means by which the machinery 
necessary for the establishment of such factories 
could be obtained. Under Mr. Davis the armies 
were organized, and in those armies were more 
soldiers than the white arms-bearing population liv- 
ing within the military lines of the Confederacy. 
In some way under his administration these soldiers 
were admirably armed, fairly supplied with a fair 
quality of the necessary munitions of war; were 
clad, not sufficiently, but so as to be protected from 
the severer weather ; and fed, not amply, but so as 
to fit them for the most fatiguing marches and 
glorious victories. Out of mere debris thrown away 
as useless, the Merrimac was made, and naval war- 
fare entirely revolutionized. Hospitals were sup- 
plied, true, with sad insufficiency, but yet so as that 
the wounded found careful nursing and the sick had 
their pains alleviated. Civil government was pre- 
served and public order was maintained; and the 
usual machinery of republican institutions never for 
a moment interfered with. Enormous sums of 
money were raised, and apparently from nothing; 



392 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DA Via 

credit was organized so as to keep in the field these 
troops and to put on the seas cruisers sufficient in 
number to make the commerce of the country flee 
before them. 

I am not now attempting to describe the military 
operations which were conducted under his orders, 
but to call attention to the obscurer but vital duties 
which were performed by him or under his order, 
and which have not received the attention and the 
commendation which they deserve. 

My personal acquaintance with Mr. Davis was too 
slight for me to attempt to describe him in the pri- 
vate relations of life, but those who came in contact 
' with him even for a moment could not fail to be 
struck with the mingled gentleness and dignity 
which characterized him ; the patience with which 
he listened until patience ceased to be a virtue, and 
then the dignity with which he could assert his 
power. On the march from Greensborough to 
Washington there was an unfailing courtesy which 
rendered the approach of any private pleasant and 
easy ; a kindly deference to those with whom he 
happened to be thrown, and a gentle dignity which 
prevented any undue familiarity. 

For twenty-five years he has been the representa- 
tive of the disasters, the destroyed hopes, and the 
sorrows of that great struggle. All who participated 
in it felt that he had borne the odium of our acts, 




o 



CO 

O 



JEFFERSON DA Via 393 

and been made the vicarious sacrifice for us. During 
those years he has kept with unimpaired fidelity and 
unfailing dignity the central conception of that great 
movement — that the States which composed the 
Federal Union did have such duties to their citizens 
as to render it proper under proper circumstances to 
assert for those citizens the liberties which they in- 
herited ; that there existed no power under any con- 
stitution, nor under any form of government, to take 
from the citizens of any State or section those liber- 
ties which are above constitutions, and to protect 
which governments are formed. He never, either in 
his own name or as the representative of his fol- 
lowers, gave any utterance to the possibility of a 
renewal of that struggle ; no one more fully recog- 
nized than he that the defeat of that Confederacy 
was final and conclusive, and that whatever there 
was of value in liberty must be preserved within the 
Union and under the present Constitution. But his 
very life was a protest against the tendency to 
centralization. He stood, if nothing more, as a 
monument to the ancient construction of the Consti- 
tution which the fathers believed was that which 
gave hope to the permanency of free institutions ; 
and so long as the rising generation could hear his 
name, it caused a pause and created the interroga- 
tory as to whether a Republic of States can be pre- 
served by centralization. 



\ 



394 REMINISCENCES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Near in time and near in locality were Abraham 
Lincoln and Jefferson Davis born ; each loved liberty 
with a boundless devotion; one felt that constitu- 
tional liberty could be preserved only by a strict 
adherence to constitutional duties, by the preserva- 
tion of the autonomy of the States, and the iggorous 
restriction of the powers of the general government 
within the limits of the warrant which gave it any 
rights at all ; the other felt called upon to give his 
life to the preservation of the territorial union based 
upon the universal enfranchisement of the individual 
citizen. It may be that the generations which follow 
us will conclude that true liberty needs all, the uni- 
versal enfranchisement of the citizens, the territorial 
union which gives an arena for a great nation, and 
yet the autonomy of the States and the strict limita- 
tions of the Constitution. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



ROBERT E. LEE * 

BY JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

ROBERT EDWARD LEE, gentleman, scholar, gallant 
soldier, great soldier, and true Christian, was born in 
Westmoreland County, Va., on January 19, 1807. 
He was the youngest son of General Henry Lee, who was 
familiarly known as " Light-Horse Harry," in the traditions 
of the war of the Revolution, and who possessed the marked 
confidence and personal regard of General Washington. 

R. E. Lee entered the United States Military Academy in 
the summer of 1825, after which my acquaintance with him 
commenced. He was, as I remember him, larger and looked 
more mature than the average " pleb," but less so than 
Mason, who was destined to be the head of his class. His 
soldierly bearing and excellent conduct caused him, in due 
succession, to rise through the several grades and to be the 
adjutant of the corps of cadets when he graduated. It is 
stated that he had not then a "demerit" mark standing 
against him, which is quite creditable if all "reports" against 
liim had been cancelled because they were not for wanton or 
intentional delinquency. Though numerically rated second 
in hia class, his proficiency was such that he ^vas assigned to 

* From North Ainerican Review. 

397 



398 APPENDIX. 

the engineer corps, which for many years he adorned both as 
a military and civil engineer. 

He was of the highest type of manly beauty, yet seem- 
ingly unconscious of it, and so respectful and unassuming as 
to make him a general favorite before his great powers had 
an opportunity for manifestation. His mind led him to ana- 
lytic rather than perceptive methods of obtaining results. 

From the date of his graduation, in 1829, until 1846 he 
was engaged in various professional duties, and had by regu- 
lar promotion attained to the grade of captain of engineers. 
As such he was assigned to duty with the command of Brig- 
dier-General Wool in the campaign of Chihuahua. Thence 
the command proceeded to make a junction with General Z. 
Taylor in front of Buena Vista. Here Captain Lee was 
employed in the construction of the defensive work, when 
General Scott came, armed with discretionary orders, and 
took Lee for service in the column which Scott was to com- 
mand, with much else that General Taylor could ill afford 
to spare. Subsequent events proved that the loss to General 
Taylor'a army was more than compensated by the gain to the 
general cause. 

Avoiding any encroachment upon the domain of history in 
entering upon a description of campaigns and battles, I can- 
not forbear from referring to a particular instance of Lee's 
gallantry and devotion to duty. Before the battle of Con- 
treras. General Scott's troops had become separated by the 
field of Pedrigal, and it was necessary to communicate in- 
structions to those on the other side of this barrier of rocks 
and lava. General Scott says in his report that he had sent 
seven officers since about sundown to communicate instruc- 
tions ; they had all returned without getting through, " but 



ROBERT E. LEE. 399 

the gallant and indefatigable Captain Lee, of the engineers, 
who has been constantly with the operating forces, is just in 
from Shields, Smith, Cadwallader," etc. Subsequently Gen- 
eral Scott while giving testimony before a court of inquiry 
said : " Captain Lee, engineer, came to me from Contreras 
with a message from Brigadier-General Smith, I think, about 
the same time (midnight), he having passed over the difficult 
ground by daylight found it just possible to return to St. 
Augustine in the dark — the greatest feat of physical and 
moral courage performed by any individual, in my knowl- 
edge, pending the campaign." 

This field of Pedrigal as described was impassable on 
horseback and crossed with much difficulty by infantry in 
daylight. After consultation with the generals near to Con- 
treras, it being decided that an attack must be made at day- 
light, Captain Lee, through storm and darkness, undertook, 
on foot and alone, to recross the Pedrigal, so as to give 
General Scott the notice which would insure the co-operation 
of his divided forces in the morning's attack. This feat was 
well entitled to the commendation that General Scott be- 
stowed upon it; but the highest praise belongs to Lee's 
inciting and sustaining motive, duty. To bear to the com- 
manding general the needful information, he dared and 
suffered for that which is the crowning glory of man : he 
offiired himself for the welfare of others. 

He went to Mexico with the rank of captain of engineers, 
and by gallantry and meritorious conduct rose to the rank of 
colonel in the army, commission by brevet. After his return 
he resumed his duties as an officer of the engineer corps. 
While employed in the construction of Fort Carroll, near 
Baltimore, an event occurred which illustrates his nice senti- 



400 APPENDIX. 

ment of honor. Some members of the Cuban Junta called 
upon him and offered him the command of an expedition tx) 
overthrow the Spanish control of the island. A very large 
sum of money was to be paid immediately upon his accept- 
ance of their proposition, and a large sum thenceforward was 
to be paid monthly. Lee came to Washington to converse 
with me upon the subject. After a brief discussion of the 
military problem he said it was not that he had come to con- 
sult me about ; the question he was considering was whether, 
while an officer in the United army and because of any repu- 
tation he might have acquired as such, he could accept a pro- 
position for foreign service against a Government with which 
the United States were at peace. The conclusion was his de- 
cision to decline any further correspondence with the Junta. 

In 1852 Colonel Lee was made superintendent of the 
United States Military Academy, a position for which he 
seemed to be peculiarly fitted, as well by his attainments as 
by his fondness for young people, his fine personal appear- 
ance, and impressive manners. When a year or two there- 
after I visited the academy, and. was surprised to see so many 
grey hairs on his head, he confessed that the cadets did ex- 
ceedingly worry him, and then it was perceptible that his 
sympathy with young people was rather an impediment than 
a qualification for the superintendency. 

In 1855 four new regiments were added to the army — two 
of cavalry and two of infantry. Captain Lee, of the engin- 
eers, brevet-colonel of the army, was offered the position of 
lieutenant-colonel of the Second regiment of cavalry, which 
he accepted. He was a bold, graceful horseman, and the son 
of Light-Horse Harry now seemed to be in his proper ele- 
ment ; but the chief of engineers endeavored to persuade him 



EOBEET E, LEE. 401 

that it was a descent to go from the engineer corps into the 
cavalry. Soon after the regiment was organized and assigned 
to duty in Texas ; the colonel, Albert Sidney Johnston, was 
selected to command an expedition to Utah, and the com- 
mand of the regiment and the protection of the frontier of 
Texas against Indian marauders devolved upon Colonel Lee. 
There, as in every position he had occupied, diligence, sound 
judgment and soldierly endowment made his service success- 
ful. In 1859, being on leave of absence in Virginia, he was 
made available for the suppression of the John Brown raid. 
As soon as relieved from that special assignment he returned 
to his command in Texas, and on April 25, 1861, resigned 
from the United States army. 

Then was his devotion to principle subjected to a crucial 
test, the severity of which can only be fully realized by a 
" West-Pointer " whose life has been spent in the army. 
That it was to sever the friendships of youth, to break up the 
habits of intercourse, of manners, and of thought, others may 
comprehend and estimate ; but the sentiment most profound 
in the heart of the war-worn cadet, and which made the 
change most painful to Lee, he has partially expressed in the 
letters he wrote at the time to his beloved sister, and to his 
venerated friend and commander, General Winfield Scott. 

Partisan malignants have not failed to misrepresent the 
conduct of Lee, even to the extent of charging him with 
treason and desertion ; and, unable to appreciate his sacri- 
fice to the allegiance due to Virginia, they have blindly as- 
cribed his action to selfish ambition. It has been erroneously 
asserted that he was educated at the expense of the General 
Government, and an attempt has been made then to deduce a 
special obligation to adhere to it. 
26 



402 APPENDIX. 

The cadets of the United States Military Academy are ap- 
portioned among the States in proportion to the number of 
representatives they severally have in the Congress ; that is, 
one for each congressional district, with ten additional for the 
country at large. The annual appropriations for the support 
of the army and navy include the commissioned, warrant, 
and non-commissioned officers, privates, seamen, etc., etc. 
The cadets and midshipmen are warrant officers, and while at 
the academies are receiving elementary instruction in and for 
the public service. At whose expense are they taught and 
supported ? Surely at that of the people — they who pay the 
taxes and imposts to supply the Treasury with means to meet 
appropriations as well as to pay generals and admirals as cadets 
and midshipmen. The cadet's obligation for his place and 
support was to the State, by virtue of whose distributive share 
he was appointed, and whose contributions supplied the 
United States Treasury ; through the State, as a member of 
the Union, allegiance was due to it, and most usefully and 
nobly did Lee pay the debt both at home and abroad. 

No proposition could be more absurd than that he was 
prompted by selfish ambition to join the Confederacy. With 
a small part of his knowledge of the relative amount of 
material of war possessed by the North and South, any one 
must have seen that the chances of war were against us ; but 
if thrice-armed Justice should enable the South to maintain 
her independence, as our fathers had done, notwithstanding 
the unequal contest, what selfish advantage could it bring 
Lee ? If, as some among us yet expected, many hoped, and 
all wished, there should be a peaceful separation, he would 
have left behind him all he had gained by long and brilliant 
service, and could not have in our small army greater rank 



ROBERT E. LEE. 403 

than was proffered to hira in the larger one he had left. If 
active hostilities were prosecuted, his large property would be 
so exposed as to incur serious injury, if not destruction. His 
mother, Virginia, had revoked the grants she had voluntarily 
made to the Federal Government, and asserted the State 
sovereignty and independence he had won from the mother- 
country by the war of the Revolution; and thus it was re- 
garded, the allegiance of her sons became wholly her own. 
Above the voice of his friends at Washington, advising and 
entreating him to stay with them, rose the cry of Virginia 
calling her sons to defend her against threatened invasion. 
Lee heeded this cry only ; alone he rode forth, as he had 
crossed the Pedrigal, his guiding star being duty, and offered" 
his sword to Virginia. His offer was accepted, and he was 
appointed to the chief command of the forces of the State. 
Though his reception was most flattering and the confidence 
manifested in him unlimited, his conduct was conspicuous 
for the modesty and moderation which had always been char- 
acteristic of him. 

The South had been involved in war without having made 
due preparation for it. She was without a navy, without 
even a merchant marine commensurate with her wants during 
peace ; without arsenals, armories, foundries, manufactories, 
or stores on hand to supply those wants. Lee exerted him- 
self to the utmost to raise and organize troops in Virginia ; 
and when the State joined the confederacy he was invited to 
come to Montgomery and explain the condition of his com-' 
mand ; but his engagements were so pressing that he sent his 
second officer. General J. E. Johnston, to furnish the desired 
information. 

When the capital of the Confederacy was removed from 



404 APPENDIX. 

Montgomery to Eichmond Lee, under the orders of the 
President, was charged with the general direction of army 
affairs. In this position the same pleasant relations which 
had always existed between them continued, and Lee's inde- 
fatigable attention to the details of the various commands 
was of much benefit to the public service. In the mean time 
disaster, confusion and disagreement among the commanders 
in western Virginia made it necessary to send there an officer 
of higher rank than any then on duty in that section. The 
service was disagreeable, toilsome, and in no wise promising 
to give distinction to a commander. Passing by all reference 
to others, suffice it to say that at last Lee was asked to go, 
and, not counting the cost, he unhesitatingly prepared to 
start. By concentrating the troops, and by a judicious selec- 
tion of the position, he compelled the enemy finally to 
retreat. 

There is an incident in this campaign which has never 
been reported, save as it was orally given to me by General 
Lee, with a request that I should take no official notice of it. 
A strong division of the enemy was reported to be encamped 
in a valley which, one of the colonels said he had found by 
reconnoissance could readily be approached on one side, and 
he proposed with his regiment to surprise and attack. Gen- 
eral Lee accepted his proposition, but told him that he him- 
self would, in the mean time, with several regiments, ascend 
the mountain that overlooked the valley on the other side, 
and at dawn of day on a morning fixed the colonel was to 
make his assault. His firing was to be the signal for a joint 
attack from three directions. During the night Lee made a 
toilsome ascent of the mountain and was in position at the 
time agreed upon. The valley was covered by a dense fog. 



EGBERT E. LEE. 405 

Not hearing the signal he went by a winding path down the 
side of the mountain and saw the enemy preparing breakfast 
and otherwise so engaged as to indicate that they were en- 
tirely ignorant of any danger. Lee returned to his own 
command, told them what he had seen, and, though the 
expected signal had not been given by which the attacking 
regiment and another detachment were to engage in the as- 
sault, he proposed that the regiments then with him should 
surprise the camp, which he believed, under the circum- 
stances, might successfully be done. The colonels went to 
consult their men and returned to inform him that they were 
so cold, wet and hungry as to be unfit for the enterprise. 
The fog was then lifting, and it was necessary to attack 
immediately or to withdraw before being discovered by the 
much larger force in the valley. Lee therefore withdrew his 
small command and safely conducted them to his encamp- 
ment. 

The colonel who was to give the signal for the joint attack, 
misapprehending the purpose, reported that when he arrived 
upon the ground he found the encampment protected by a 
heavy abattis, which prevented him from making a sudden 
charge, as he had expected, not understanding that if he had 
fired his guns at any distance he would have secured the joint 
attack of the other detachments, and probably brought about 
an entire victory. Lee generously forbore to exonerate 
himself when the newspapers in Richmond criticised him 
severel}", one denying him any other consideration except 
that which he enjoyed as "the President's pet." 

It was an embarrassment to the Executive to be de- 
prived of the advice of General Lee, but it was deemed 
necessary again to detach him to look after affairs on the 



406 APPENDIX. 

coast of Carolina and Georgia, and so violent had been the 
unmerited attacks upon him by the Richmond press that 
it was thought proper to give him a letter to the Governor 
of South Carolina, stating what manner of man had been 
sent to him. There his skill as an engineer was manifested 
in the defences he constructed and devised. On his re- 
turn to Richmond he resumed his functions of general 
supervisor of military affairs. 

In the spring of 1862 Bishop Meade lay dangerously 
ill. This venerable ecclesiastic had taught General Lee his 
catechism when a boy, and when he was announced to the 
Bishop the latter asked to have him shown in immediately. 
He answered to Lee's inquiry as to how he felt by say- 
ing : " Nearly gone, but I wished to see you once more ; " 
and then in a feeble voice added : " God bless you, Robert, 
and fit you for your high and responsible duties ! " The 
great soldier stood reverently by the bed of his early pre- 
ceptor in Christianity, but the saintly patriot saw beyond 
the hero the pious boy to whom he had taught the cate- 
chism ; first he gave his dying blessing to Robert, and 
then, struggling against exhaustion, invoked Heaven's guid- 
ance for the General. 

After the battle of Seven Pines Lee was assigned to the 
command of the army of Virginia, Thus far his duties 
had been of a kind to confer a great benefit, but to be un- 
seen and unappreciated by the public. Now he had an op- 
portunity for the employment of his remarkable power of 
generalization while attending to the minutest details. The 
public saw manifestation of the first, but could not estimate 
the extent to which the great results achieved were due to the 
exact order, systematic economy, and regularity begotten of 



ROBERT E. LEE. 407 

his personal attention to the proper adjustment of even the 
smallest part of that mighty machine, a well-organized, disci- 
plined army. His early instructor, in a published letter, 
seemed to regard the boy's labor of finishing a drawing on a 
slate as an excess of care. "Was it so ? No doubt, so far 
as the particular task was concerned ; but this seedling is to 
be judged by the fruit the tree bore. That little drawing on 
the slate was the prototype of the exact investigations which 
crowned with success his labors as a civil and military engin- 
eer, as well as a commander of the armies. May it not have 
been, not only by endowment but also from these early efforts, 
that his mind became so rounded, systematic, and complete 
that his notes, written on the battle-field and in the saddle, 
had the precision of form and lucidity of expression found in 
those written in the quiet of his tent. These incidents are re- 
lated, not because of their intrinsic importance, but as pre- 
senting an example for the emulation of youths whose admi- 
ration of Lee may induce them to follow the toilsome methods 
by which he attained to true greatness and enduring fame. 

In the early days of June, 1862, General McClelland 
threatened the capital, Richmond, with an army numerically 
much superior to that to the command of which Lee had been 
assigned. A day or two after he had joined the army, I was 
riding to the front and saw a number of horses hitched in 
front of a house, and among them recognized General Lee's. 
Upon dismounting and going in I found some general officers 
engaged in consultation with him as to how McClelland's ad- 
vance could be checked, and one of them commenced to ex- 
plain the disparity of force, and with pencil and paper 
to show how the enemy could throw out his boyaus and by 
successive parallels make his approach irresistible. " Stop, 



408 APPENDIX. 

stop/' said Lee, " if you go to ciphering we are whipped be- 
forehand,' He ordered the construction of earthworks, put 
guns in position for a defensive line on the south side of the 
Chickahominy, and then commenced the strategic movement 
which was the inception of the seven days' battles, ending in 
uncovering the capital and driving the enemy to the cover of 
the gun boats in the James river. 

There never was a greater mistake than that which has 
attributed to General Lee what General Charles Lee in his 
reply to General Washington called the " rascally virtue." 
I have had occasion to remonstrate with General Lee for ex- 
posing himself, as I thought, unnecessarily in reconnoissance, 
but he justified himself by saying he "could not understand 
things so well unless he saw them." In the excitement of 
battle his natural combativeness would sometimes overcome 
his habitual self-control ; thus it twice occurred in the cam- 
paign against Grant that the men seized his bridle to restrain 
him from his purpose to lead them in a charge. 

He was always careful not to wound the sensibilities of 
any one, and sometimes with an exterior jest or compliment 
would give what, if properly appreciated, was instruction for 
the better performance of some duty ; for example, if he 
thought a general officer was not visiting his command as 
early and as often as was desirable he might admire his horse 
and suggest that the animal would be improved by more ex- 
ercise. 

He was not of the grave, formal nature that he seemed to 
some who only knew him when sad realities cast dark 
shadows upon him ; but even then the humor natural to him 
would occasionally break out. For instance. General Lee 
called at my office for a ride to the defence of Richmond, 



EGBERT E, LEE. 409 

then under construction. He was mounted on a stallion 
which some kind friend had recently sent him. As I 
mounted my horse his was restive and kicked at mine. We 
rode on quietly together, though Lee was watchful to keep 
his horse in order. Passiug by an encampment we saw near 
a tent two stallions tied at a safe distance from one another. 
"There," said he, "is a man worse off than I am." When 
asked to explain, he said: "Don't you see, he has two stal- 
lions ? I have but one." 

His habits had always been rigidly temperate, and his fare 
in camp was of the simplest. I remember on one battle-field 
riding past where he and his staff were taking their luncheon. 
He invited me to share it, and when I dismounted for the 
purpose it proved to have consisted only of bacon and corn- 
bread. The bacon had all been eaten, and there were only 
some crusts of corn-bread left, which, however, having been 
saturated with the bacon gravy, were in those hard times 
altogether acceptable, as General Lee was assured in order to 
silence his regrets. 

While he was on duty in South Carolina and Georgia 
Lee's youngest son, Robert, then a mere boy, left school and 
came down to Richmond, announcing his purpose to go into 
the army. His older brother, Custis, was a member of my 
staff, and after a conference we agreed that it was useless to 
send the boy back to school, and that he probably would not 
wait in Richmond for the return of his father ; so we selected 
a battery M'hich had been organized in Richmond and sent 
Robert to join it. General Lee told me that at the battle of 
Sharpsburg this battery suffered so much that it had to be 
withdrawn for repairs and some fresh horses ; but, as he had 
no 'troops even to form a reserve, as soon as the battery could 



410 APPENDIX. 

be made useful it was ordered forward. He said that as it 
passed him a boy mounted as a driver of one of the guns 
much stained with powder, said : " Are you going to put us 
in again, general?" After replying to him in the affirma- 
tive he was struck by the voice of the boy and asked him, 
" Whose son are you ? " To which he answered, " I am 
Robbie/' whereupon his father said : " God bless you, my 
son, you must go in." 

When General Lee was in camp near Richmond his friends 
frequently sent him something to improve his mess-table. A 
lady noted for the very good bread she made had frequently 
favored him with some. One day, as we were riding through 
the street, she was standing in her front door and bowed to 
us. The salutation was, of course, returned. After we had 
passed he asked me who she was. I told him she was the 
lady who sent him such good bread. He was very sorry he 
had not known it, but to go back would prove that he had 
not recognized her as he should have done. His habitual 
avoidance of any seeming harshness, which caused him some- 
times, instead of giving a command, to make a suggestion, 
was probably a defect. I believe that he had in this manner 
indicated that supplies were to be deposited for him at Amelia 
Court-house, but the testimony of General Breckenridge, 
Secretary of War, of General St. John, Commissary-General, 
and Lewis Harvie, president of the Richmond and Danville 
Railroad, conclusively proves that no such requisition was 
made upon either of the persons who should have received 
it ; and, further, that there were supplies both at Danville 
and Richmond which could have been sent to Amelia Court- 
House if information had been received that they were 
wanted there. 



KOBEET E. LEE. 411 

Much has been written in regard to the faihire to occupy 
the Kound Top at Gettysburg early in the morning of the 
second day's battle, to which failure the best judgment attri- 
butes our want of entire success in that battle. Whether this 
was due to the order not being sufficiently positive or not, I 
will leave to the historians who are discussing that important 
event. I have said that Lee's natural temper was combative, 
and to this may be ascribed his attack on the third day at 
Gettysburg, when the opportunity had not been seized which 
his genius saw was the gate to victory. It was this last at- 
tack to which I have thought he referred when he said it was 
all his fault, thereby sparing others from whatever blame was 
due for what had previously occurred. 

After the close of the war, while I was in prison and Lee 
was on parole, we were both indicted on a charge of treason ; 
but, in hot haste to get in their work, the indictment was 
drawn with the fatal omission of an overt act. General 
Grant interposed in the case of General Lee, on the ground 
that he had taken his parole, ^nd that he was, therefore, not 
subject to arrest. Another grand jury was summoned, and a 
bill was presented against me alone and amended by inserting 
specifications of overt acts. General Lee was summoned as a 
witness before that grand jury, the object being to prove by 
him that I was responsible for certain things done by him 
during the war. I was in Richmond, having been released 
by virtue of the writ of habeas corpus. General Lee met me 
very soon after having given his testimony before the grand 
jury, and told me that to the inquiry whether he had not, in 
the specified cases, acted under my orders, he said that he had 
always consulted me when he had the opportunity, both on 
the field and elsewhere ; that after discussion, if not before, 
we had always agreed, and therefore he had done with my 



412 APPENDIX. 

consent and approval only what he might have done if he had 
not consulted me, and that he accepted the full responsi- 
bility for his acts. He said he had endeavored to present 
the matter as distinctly as he could, and looked up to see 
what effect he was producing upon the grand jury. Im- 
mediately before him sat a big black negro, whose head 
had fallen back on the rail of the bench he sat on ; his 
mouth was wide open, and he was fast asleep. General 
Lee pleasantly added that, if he had had any vanity as an 
orator, it would have received a rude check. 

The evident purpose was to offer to Lee a chance to 
escape by transferring to me the responsibility for overt 
acts. Not only to repel the suggestion, but unequivocally 
to avow his individual responsibility, with all that, under 
existing circumstances, was implied in this, was the highest 
reach of moral courage and gentlemanly pride. Those cir- 
cumstances were exceptionally perilous to him. He had 
been indicted for treason ; the United Slates President had 
vindictively threatened to make treason odious; the dregs 
of society Lad been thrown to the surface; judicial seats 
were held by political adventurers; the United States judge 
of the Virginia district had answered to a committee of 
Congress that he could pack a jury so as to convict Davis 
or Lee — and it was under such surroundings that he met 
the grand jury and testified as stated above. Arbitrary 
power might pervert justice and trample on right, but could 
not turn the knightly Lee from the path of honor and truth. 

Descended from a long line of illustrious warriors and 
statesmen, Robert Edward Lee added new glory to the name 
he bore, and, whether measured by a martial or an intellec- 
tual standard, will compare favorably with those whose repu- 
tation it devolved upon him to sustain and emulate. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 

TTNDEE. a Cabinet consultation, Mr. Davis accepted the 
\j generous offer of Mr. Stephens, who wished to pro- 
ceed to Washington for the purpose of treating with 
the Federal Government on the subject of the release of the 
prisoners, by seeking to reestablish the cartel of exchange 
on a fair basis, as well as endeavoring to stay the barbarous 
and cruel acts of such Federal officers as Major-General D. 
Hunter, and others, in their useless and uncalled-for treat- 
ment of women, children and non-combatants. Mr. Davis' 
commission to Mr. Stephens read as follows : 

Richmond, July 2d, 1863. 
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Richmond, Va. 

Sir : — Having accepted your patriotic offer to proceed, as 
a military commissioner, under flag-of-truce, to Washington, 
you will herewith receive your letter of authority to the 
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United 
States. 

This letter is signed by me as Commander-in-Chief of 
the Confederate land and naval forces. 

You will perceive, from the terms of the letter, that it 
is so worded as to avoid any political difficulties in its 
reception. Intended exclusively as one of those communica- 
tions between belligerents which public law recognizes as 
necessary and proper between hostile forces, care has been 
taken to give no pretext for refusing to receive it on 

413 



414 APPENDIX. 

the ground that it would involve a tacit recognition of 
the independence of the Confederacy. 

Your mission is simply one of humanity, and has no 
political aspect. 

If objection is made to receive your letter on the ground 
that it is not addressed to Abraham Lincoln as President, 
instead of Commander-in-Chief, &c., then you will present 
the duplicate letter, which is addressed to him as President, 
and signed by me as President. To this letter, objection 
may be made on the ground that I am not recognized to be 
President of the Confederacy. In this event, you will 
decline any further attempt to confer on the subject of your 
mission, as such conference is admissible only on a footing 
of perfect equality. 

My recent interviews with > you have put you so fully in 
possession of my views, that it is scarcely necessary to give 
you any detailed instructions, even were I at this moment 
well enough to attempt it. 

My whole purpose is, in one word, to place this war on 
the footing of such as are waged by civilized people in 
modern times, and to divest it of the savage character which 
has been impressed on it by our enemies, in spite of all our 
efforts and protests. War is full enough of unavoidable 
horrors, under all its aspects, to justify, and even to demand 
of any Christian ruler, who may be unhappily engaged in 
carrying it on, to seek to restrict its calamities, and to divest 
it of all unnecessary severities. 

You will endeavor to establish the cartel for the exchange 
of prisoners on such a basis as to avoid the constant diffi- 
culties and complaints which arise, and to prevent for the 
future what we deem the unfair conduct of our enemies. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 415 

in evading the delivery of prisoners who fall into their 
hands, in retarding it by sending them on circuitous routes, 
and by detaining them sometimes for months in camps and 
prisons, and in persisting in taking captiv^e non-combatants. 

Your attention is also called to the unheard-of conduct 
of Federal officers in driving from their homes entire com- 
munities of women and children, as well as of men, whom 
they find in districts occupied by their troops, for no other 
reason than because these unfortunates are faithful to the 
allegiance due to their States, and refuse to take an oath 
of fidelity to their enemies. 

The putting to death of unarmed prisoners has been a 
ground of just complaint in more than one instance ; and 
the recent execution of officers of our army in Kentucky, 
for the sole cause that they were engaged in recruiting ser- 
vice in a State which is claimed as still one of the United 
States, but is also claimed by us as one of the Confederate 
States, must be repressed by retaliation, if not uncondition- 
ally abandoned, because it would justify the like execution 
in every other State of the Confederacy ; and the practice 
is barbarous, uselessly cruel, and can only lead to the 
slaughter of prisoners on both sides, a result too horrible 
to contemplate without making every effisrt to avoid it. 

On this and all kindred subjects you will consider your 
authority full and ample, to make such arrangements as 
will temper the present cruel character of the contest ; and 
full confidence is placed in your judgment, patriotism, and 
discretion, that, while carrying out the objects of your mis- 
sion, you will take care that the equal rights of the Con- 
federacy be always preserved. 

Very respectfully, Jeffersox Davis. 



416 APPENDIX. 

LETTER FEOM EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS TO HON. JAMES 
LYONS* 

New Orleans, January 27, 1876. 
Hon. James Lyons : 

My Dear Friend: — Your very kind letter of the 14th 
instant was forwarded from Memphis, and has been received 
at this place. 

I have been so long the object of malignant slander and 
the subject of unscrupulous falsehood by partisans of the 
class of Mr. Blaine, that, though I cannot say it has become 
to me matter of indiiference, it has ceased to excite my 
surprise, even in this instance, when it reaches the extremity 
of accusing me of cruelty to prisoners. What matters it 
to one whose object is personal and party advantage, that 
the records, both Federal and Confederate, disprove the 
charge ; that the country is full of witnesses who bear oral 
testimony against it, and that the effort to revive the bitter 
animosities of the war obstructs the progress toward the 
reconciliation of the sections? It is enough for him if his 
self-seeking purpose be promoted. 

It would, however, seem probable that such expectations 
must be disappointed, for only those who are wilfully blind 
can fail to see in the circumstances of the case the fallacy 
of Mr. Blaine's statements. The published fact of an 
attempt to suborn Wirz, when under sentence of death, 
by promising him a pardon if he would criminate me in 
regard to the Andersouville prisoners, is conclusive as to 
the wish of the Government to make such charge against 
me, and the failure to do so shows that nothing could be 
found to sustain it. May we not say the evidence of my 
* In relation to the treatment of the Federal prisoners at Andersonville. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 417 

innocence was such that Holt and Conover, with their 
trained band of suborned witnesses, dared not make against 
me this charge — the same which Wirz, for his life, would 
not make, but which Blaine, for the Presidential nomination, 
has made? 

Now let us review the leading facts in this case. The 
report of the Confederate commissioner for exchange of 
prisoners shows how persistent and liberal were our efforts 
to secure the relief of captives. Failing in these attempts, 
1 instructed General R. E. Lee to go under flag of truce 
and seek an interview with General Grant, to represent 
to him the suffering and death of Federal prisoners held 
by us, to explain the causes, which were beyond our control, 
and to urge in the name of humanity the observance of the 
cartel for the exchange of prisoners. To this, as to all pre- 
vious appeals, a deaf ear was turned. The interview was not 
granted. I will not attempt, from memory, to write the 
details of the correspondence. Lee no longer lives to defend 
the cause and country he loved so well and served so effi- 
ciently ; but General Grant cannot fail to remember so 
extraordinary a proposition, and his objections to executing 
the cartel are well known to the public. But whoever 
else may choose to forget my efforts in this regard, the 
prisoners at Andersonville, and the delegates I permitted 
them to send to President Lincoln to j)lead for the resump- 
tion of exchange of prisoners, cannot fail to remember how 
willing I was to restore them to their homes and to the 
comforts of which they were in need, provided the imprisoned 
soldiers of the Confederacy should be in like manner re- 
leased and returned to us. 

This foul accusation, though directed specially against 
27 



418 APPENDIX. 

me, was no doubt intended as, and naturally must be, the 
arraignment of the South, by whose authority and in whose 
behalf my deeds were done. It may be presumed that the 
feelings and the habits of the Southern soldiers were under- 
stood by me, and in that connection any fair mind would 
perceive in my congratulatory orders to the army after a 
victory, in which the troops were most commended for their 
tenderness and generosity to the wounded and other captives, 
as well the instincts of the person who issued the order 
as the knightly temper of the soldiers to whom it was 
addressed. It is admitted that the prisoners in our hands 
were not as well provided for as we would, but it is claimed 
that we did as well for them as we could. Can the other 
side say as much ? 

To the bold allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners by 
our side, and humane treatment and adequate supplies by 
our opponents, it is only necessary to offer two facts — first, it 
appears from the reports of the United States War Depart- 
ment that, though we had sixty thousand more Federal 
prisoners than they had of Confederates, six thousand more 
of Confederates died in Northern prisons than died of Fed- 
erals in Southern prisons ; second, the want and suffering 
of men in Northern prisons caused me to ask for permission 
to send out cotton and buy supplies for them. The request 
was granted, but only on condition that the cotton should 
be sent to New York and the supplies be bought there. 
General Beale, now of St. Louis, was authorized to purchase 
and distribute the needful supplies. 

Our sympathy rose with the occasion and responded to 
its demands — not waiting for ten years, then to vaunt itself 
uphen it could serve no good purpose to the sufferers. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 41 9 

Under the mellowinoj influence of time and occasional 
demonstrations at the North of a desire for the restoration 
of peace and good-will, the Southern people have forgotten 
much — have forgiven much, of the wrongs they bore. If it 
be less so among their invaders, it is but another example 
of the rule that the wrong-doer is less able to forgive than 
he -who has suffered causeless wrong. It is not, however, 
generally among those who braved the hazards of battle 
that unrelenting vindictiveness is to be found. The brave 
are generous and gentle. It is the skulkers of the fight — 
the Blaines — who display their flags on an untented field. 
They made no sacrifice to prevent the separation of the 
States. Why should they be expected to promote the confi- 
dence and good-will essential to their union? 

When closely confined at Fortress Monroe, I was solicited 
to add my name to those of many esteemed gentlemen who 
had signed a petition for my pardon, and an assurance was 
given that on my doing so the President would order my 
liberation. Confident of the justice of our cause and the 
rectitude of my own conduct, I declined to sign the petition, 
and remained subject to the inexcusable privations and 
tortures which Dr. Craven has but faintly described. When, 
after two" years of close confinement, I was admitted to bail, 
as often as required I appeared for trial under the indict- 
ment found against me, but in which Mr. Blaine's fictions 
do not appear. The indictment was finally quashed on an 
application of mine, nor have I ever evaded or avoided a 
trial upon any charge the General Government might choose 
to bring against me, and have no view of the future which 
makes it desirable to me to be included in an amnesty bill. 

Viewed in the abstract or as a general question, I would 



420 APPENDIX. 

be glad to see the repeal of all laws inflicting the penalty 
of political disabilities on classes of the people, that it might, 
as prescribed by the Constitution, be left to the courts to 
hear and decide causes, and to affix penalties according to 
pre-existing legislation. The discrimination made against 
our people is unjust and impolitic, if the fact be equality and 
the purpose be fraternity among the citizens of the United 
States. Conviction and sentence without a hearing, without 
jurisdiction, and affixing penalties by ex post facto legislation, 
are part of the proceeding which had its appropriate end in 
the assumption by Congress of the executive function of 
granting pardons. To remove political disabilities which 
there was not legal power to impose, was not an act of so 
much grace as to form a plausible pretext for the reckless 
diatribe of Mr. Blaine. 

The papers preserved by Dr. Stevenson happily furnish 
full proof of the causes of disease and death at Anderson- 
ville. They are now, I believe, in Richmond, and it is to be 
hoped their publication will not be much longer delayed. 
I have no taste for recrimination, though the sad recitals 
made by our soldiers returned from Northern prisons can 
never be forgotten. And you will remember the excitement 
those produced, and the censorious publications which were 
uttered against me because T would not visit on the helpless 
prisoners in our hands such barbarities as, according to 
reports, had been inflicted upon our men. 

Imprisonment is a hard lot at the best, and prisoners are 
prone to exaggerate their sufferings, and such was probably 
the case on both sides. But we did not seek by reports 
of committees, with photographic illustrations, to inflame the 
passions of our people. How was it with our enemy ? Let 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 421 

one example suffice. You may remember a published report 
of a committee of the United States Congress which was 
sent to Annapolis to visit some exchanged prisoners, and 
which had appended to it the photographs of some emaciated 
subjects, which were offered as samples of prisoners returned 
from the South. 

When a copy of that report was received, I sent it to 
Colonel Ould, commissioner for the exchange of prisoners, 
and learned, as I anticipated, that the photographs, as far as 
they could be identified, had been taken from men who were 
in our hospital when they were liberated for exchange, and 
whom the hospital surgeon regarded as convalescent, but too 
weak to be removed with safety to themselves. The anxiety 
of the prisoners to be sent to their homes had prevailed over 
the objections of the surgeon. But this is not all, for I have 
recently learned from a priest who was then at Annapolis, 
that the most wretched-looking of these photographs was 
taken from a man who had never been a prisoner, but who 
had been left on the "sick list" at Annapolis when the 
command to which he was attached had passed that place on 
its southward march. 

"Whatever may be said in extenuation of such imposture 
because of the exigencies of war, there can be no such excuse 
now for the attempts of Mr. Blaine, by gross misrepresenta- 
tion and slanderous accusation, to revive the worst passions 
of the war ; and it is to be hoped that, much as the event is 
to be regretted, it will have the good eiFect of evoking truth- 
ful statements in regard to this little-understood subject, 
from men who would have preferred to leave their sorrowful 
story untold if the subject could have been allowed peacefally 
to sink into oblivion. 



422 APPENDIX. 

Mutual respect is needful for the common interest, is 
essential to a friendly union ; and when slander is promul- 
gated from high places, the public welfare demands that 
truth should strip falsehood of its power for evil. 
I am, respectfully and truly, your friend, 

Jefferson Davis. 

COMMENT ON MR. DAVIS'S LETTER.* 

In an editorial in his paper, the New York Sun, Mr. 
Dana, after sjjeaking of the bitterness of feeling towards 
Mr. Davis at the North, thus comments on his recent letter 
to Mr. Lyons : 

This letter shows clearly, wethink, that the Confederateautho- 
rities, and especially Mr. Davis, ought not to be held responsi- 
ble for the terrible privations, sufferings and injuries which our 
men had to endure while they were kept in the Confederate 
military prisons. The fact is unquestionable, that while the 
Confederates desired to exchange prisoners, to send our men 
home and to get back their own. General Grant steadily and 
strenuously resisted such an exchange. While, in his opin- 
ion, the prisoners in our hands were well fed, and were in 
l)etter condition than when they were captured, our prisoners 
in the South were ill-fed, and would be restored to us too 
much exhausted by famine and disease to form a fair set-off 
against the comparatively vigorous men who would be given in 
exchange. " It is hard on our men held in Southern pris- 
ons," said Grant, in an official communication, " not to ex- 
change them ; but it is humane to those left in the ranks to 
fight our battles. If we commence a system of exchanges 
which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on 
* By Charles R. Dana, formerly U. S. Assistant Secretary of War. 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 423 

until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those 
caught, they count for no more than dead men." " I did 
not/' he said, on another occasion, "deem it justifiable or just 
to reinforce the enemy ; and an immediate resumption of ex- 
changes would have had that effect, without any correspond- 
ing benefit," 

This evidence must be taken as conclusive. It proves that 
it was not the Confederate authorities who insisted on keep- 
ing our prisoners in distress, want and disease, but the com- 
mander of our own armies. We do not say that his reason 
for this course was not valid ; but it was not Jefferson Davis, 
or any subordinate or associate of his, who should now be 
condemned for it. We were responsible ourselves for the 
continued detention of our captives in misery, starvation and 
sickness in the South. 

Moreover, there is no evidence whatever that it was prac- 
ticable for the Confederate authorities to feed our prisoners 
any better than they were fed, or to give them better care and 
attention than they received. The food was insufficient ; the 
care and attention were insufficient, no doubt ; and yet the 
condition of our prisoners was not worse than that of the Con- 
federate soldiers in the field, except in so far as the condition 
of those in prison must of necessity be worse than that of men 
who are free and active outside. 

Again, in reference to those cases of extreme suffering and 
disease, the photographs of whose victims were so extensively 
circulated among us toward the end of the war, Mr. Davis 
makes, it seems to us, a good answer. Those very unfortu- 
nate men were not taken from prisons, but from Confederate 
hospitals, where they had received the same medical treatment 
as was given to sick and wounded Confederate soldiers. The 



424 APPENDIX 

fact mentioned by Mr. Davis, that while thej had 60,000 
more prisoners of ours than we had of theirs, the number of 
Confederates who died in our prisons exceeded by 6000 the 
whole number of Union soldiers who died in Southern pris- 
ons, though not entirely .conclusive, since our men were gen- 
erally better fed and in better health than theirs, still fur- 
nishes a strong support to the position that, upon the 
wholis, our men were not used with greater severity or sub- 
jected to greater privations than were inevitable in the nature 
of the case. Of this charge, therefore, of cruelty to prisoners, 
so often brought against Mr. Davis, and reiterated by Mr. 
Blaine in his speech, we think he must be held altogether 
acquitted. 

There are 'other things in his letter not essential to this 
question, expressions of political opinion and intimations of 
views upon larger subjects, which it is not necessary that we 
should discuss. We are bound, however, to say, that in ele- 
vation of spirit, in a sincere desire for the total restoration 
of fraternal feeling and unity between the once warring parts 
of the Republic, Mr. Davis's letter is infinitely superior and 
infinitely more creditable to him, both as a statesman and a 
man, than anything that has recently fallen from such antag- 
onists and critics of his as Mr. Blaine. 



LORD WOIvSELEY'S MISTAKES. 

BY JEFFKRSON DAVIS. 

(North American Review.') 

p{ ENERAL WOLSETvEY having criticised the Hon. 

\^ Jefferson Davis in one of his articles, it seems but 
fair that the ex- President of the Confederacy should 
have an opportunity to reply. At the same time, it should 
be remembered, injustice to General Wolseley, that that dis- 
tinguished soldier expressly states that his articles deal only 
with the information supplied by the Century's history of the 
Civil War ; and he cannot be held responsible for deficien- 
cies in that source of information. — Editor North American 
Review." 

Lord Wolseley has twice conspicuously assumed the part 
of a self-appointed judge of certain military problems pre- 
sented by the war between the States, and has presumed to 
pronounce his decisions in a tone of authority that, viewing 
his capacity, amuses, and, viewing his record, amazes, the 
reader competent to judge between the critic and the move- 
ments and men he has undertaken to criticise. In The North 
American Review for May he returns with increased venom 
to his attack on the Confederate Executive. As his refer- 
ence to me is so manifestly dragged into his article, and so 
transparently an ebullition of temper, I had not intended to 
notice it. But I have been so earnestly urged by personal 
friends in both sections, in the interest of historical truth, to 
refute Lord Wolseley's slanderous perversions of Confederate 

425 



426 APPENDIX. 

history that I reluctantly yield my personal inclination to 
reply to him in the pages of The Review. 

My reluctance to engage in the controversy relating to the 
war between the States is not personal only, but rests on con- 
siderations of public interest ; for such controversies give 
occasion to demagogues for reviving old animosities that are 
injurious to the general welfare — animosities which, unless 
stimulated, will surely and speedily disappear. But, on the 
other hand, in order that crimination and recrimination be- 
tween the States may forever cease, it is needful that the 
truth, and the whole truth, should be known, and not per- 
verted in the interest of faction. An entente cordiale cannot 
rest on a partisan pedestal. 

For my own part in the contest between the sections I 
have no excuses to make and no apology to offer. I did my 
duty to the best of my ability, according to the faith in which 
I was reared and to which I adhere. What is true in my 
own case is equally true of my associates. Instead of being 
" traitors," we were loyal to our States ; instead of being 
rebels against the Union, we were defenders of the Constitu- 
tion as framed by its founders and as expounded by them. 
Taught by them to regard the State as sovereign and the 
Federal Government as the agent, not the ruler, of the 
States, we loyally followed the lead of the sovereign and re- 
sisted the usurpations of the agent. "We do not fear the ver- 
dict of posterity on the purity of our motives, on the sincerity 
of our belief, which our sacrifices and career sufficiently at- 
tested. 

But while we of the South have no desire to keep alive the 
controversies of the war, it is equally due to our own self- 
respect and a duty to our dead associates to repel the unjust 



LORD WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 427 

aspersions that it has been sought to fasten on the motives 
and conduct of the leaders of the Confederacy. 

In previous attacks Lord Wolseley contented himself, as 
he does in the first few pages of his North American Review 
article, with speaking of me in a tone of lofty disparagement, 
without condescending to give specific reasons for his un- 
favorable opinion. But now, after a somewhat Olympian 
sentence of condemnation, the Adjutant-General incautiously 
gives a condensed bill of particulars, as if to justify his un- 
favorable opinion. He writes : 

" It may be said that it was impossible for any one to fore- 
see the dimensions to which the struggle would grow. But 
surely it is a statesman's business at least partially to gauge 
the strength of the forces with which he has to deal. The 
soi-disant statesman who began his high duties with the 
avowed expectation that 10,000 Enfield rifles would be suffi- 
cient to overawe the United States ; who then refused the 
services of 360,000 men, the flower of the South, and ac- 
cepted only a fraction of them, because he had not arms for 
more ; the man who neglected to buy the East Indian fleet, 
which happy chance and the zeal of subordinates threw in 
his way : the ruler who could not see that the one vital ne- 
cessity for the South was, at all sacrifice and at all hazard, to 
keep the ports ojien ; who rejected all means provided by 
others for placing the finances of the Confederacy on a sound 
basis — that man, as I think, did more than any other indi- 
vidual on either side to save the Union. I have not at- 
tempted to make the charge against him as complete and 
crushing as it could easily be made by those who trusted him 
with almost unlimited powers in their behalf." 

Specifications are always needed to give credence, if not 



428 APPENDIX. 

currency, for false accusations against men in representative 
official positions ; but as the acts of such men are necessarily 
of public record, they enjoy a facility of refutation rarely 
accorded to men in more private stations. 

I might well be ashamed of my public career if I could 
feel that the opinion of any European stripling without an 
earned record of ability either in civil or military life could 
affect my reputation in America, and, therefore, I pass un- 
noticed his personal depreciation ; but I should have graver 
cause to be ashamed of my administration of the Confederate 
Government if the allegations . he makes, without proof or 
reference, were founded in fact. 

Each and every allegation in Lord Wolseley's indictment, 
above quoted, is either false in direct statement or false by 
inference. 

It is impossible, in the limited space you assign me, fully 
to refute all of Lord Wolseley's false statements by all the 
abundant proof in contemporary records and books that I 
might easily submit ; but in the restricted space placed at my 
disposal I shall notice each of his allegations as briefly as 
possible. 

1. — "J7ie soi-disant statesman lolio began his high duties 
with the avowed expectation that 10,000 Enfield rifles would 
he sufficient to overawe the United States ; who then refused 
the services of 360,000 men, the ffovoer of the South, and 
acxicpted only a fraction of them, because he had not arms for 
more." 

This assertion that 360,000 men, "the flower of the 
South," were offered to me and refused is so devoid of truth 
or probability that only the most reckless indifference to both 
could have uttered it. That, in the then condition of the 



LOED WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 429 

Confederate States, there should have been such a numerous 
organization to offer itself is as incredible as that the Presi- 
dent, who notoriously differed with most of his countrymen 
in apprehending a long and bloody war, should have de- 
clined the services of such a force. It is untrue as a whole 
and in every part. A writer of history may be expected to 
consult contemporaneous records rather than to accept the 
rumors of manifestly unfriendly writers. In this case, for 
example, reference might have been made to the Confederate 
law of that period. 

In the act of March 6, 1861, "to provide for the public 
defence," the first section authorized the President of the 
Confederate States of America to ask for and accept the 
services of any number of volunteers, not exceeding 100,000, 
" to serve for twelve months, unless sooner discharged. " By 
the second section it is enacted that the volunteers, when 
mustered into service, should be armed by the States from 
which they came or by the Confederate States. By the 
fifth section the President was authorized to accept the vol- 
unteers in companies, squadrons, battalions and regiments. 
From this it will be seen that the largest organization con- 
templated, or which the President was authorized to accept, 
was the regiment, and that, beyond the power of the Con- 
federate Government to arm the volunteers, they were 
required to be armed by the States from which they came. 
The law treated the possession of arms as the condition on 
which volunteers might be accepted, but the English Adju- 
tant-General, in haste to censure, does not stop to inquire 
whether his " men in buckram" /iac?arms. 

Again, a military critic should know that, although arms 
are indispensable, munitions of war are also absolutely essen- 



430 APPENDIX. 

tial to troops in campaign ; and his knowledge need not be 
very profound to lead him to the conclusion that ammunition 
was necessary to make guns efFective. Of the early and 
active efforts made to obtain military supplies notice will be 
taken in the progress of this article. 

There is not a shadow of a shade of truth in Lord Wol- 
seley's statement that I began ray duties as President of 
the Confederacy with " the avowed expectation that 10,000 
Enfield rifles would be sufficient to overawe the United 
States." It is a fact of ineffaceable record that I publicly 
and always predicted a long and bloody struggle, and for 
that reason was often censured by the more ardent advo- 
cates of secession and termed " slow " and " too conserva- 
tive." No Southern man had enjoyed better opportunities 
than my public life in Washington had given me to gauge 
the resources and predict the probable policy of the people 
of the North ; for, as Senator, I had long and intimately 
associated with their representatives, and for four years 
had been United States Secretary of War. With such 
opportunities of ascertaining the power and sentiments of 
the Northern people, it would have shown an inexcusable 
want of perception if I had shared the hopes of men less 
favored with opportunities for forming correct judgments, 
in believing with them that secession could be or would be 
peacefully accomplished. 

The absurdity of these statements may further be seen 
from the fact that, as appears from the official report of 
General Gorgas,* chief of the Confederacy both under the 

* General Gorgas reports tint at the formation of the government the 
small arms at command were 15,000 rifles and 120,000 muskets, stored at 
Fayetteville, Richmond, Charleston, Augusta, Mount Vernon (Ala.) and 



LORD WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES, 431 

provisional and the permanent government, there was in 
the armories of the Confederate States, subject to my order 
as Commander-in-Chief, a supply of arms, inadequate, in- 
deed, for the needs of the country, but vastly in excess of the 
number that according to my military-imaginative critic, I 
had declared sufficient to overawe the United States ; and yet 
it is of public record that, even before I had selected the 
members of the provisional cabinet, or engaged a private sec- 
retary, or had any clerical assistance whatever, one of my 
first acts as Provisional President, at INIontgomery, was to 
commission Captain (afterwards Admiral) Raphael Semmes 
to proceed North and purchase all the arms, ammunition and 
other munitions of war, and the machinery for making them, 
that he could buy and have delivered. In Admiral Semmes' 
" Memoirs of Service Afloat " it will be found on 'page 82 
and the following pages that he reached Montgomery on the 
19th of February, 1861, the day after the inauguration of 
President Davis. He there states that he called upon the 
President, who conversed with him on the want of preparation 
for defence and asked Captain Semmes if he could make use 
of him, and explained his purpose to send him to the North- 
Baton Rouge. " Besides the foregoing, there were at Little Rock, Ark., a 
few thousand stands, and some few at the Texas arsenal, increasing the 
aggregate of serviceable arms to, say, 143,000. To these must be added the 
arms owned by the several States and by military organizations through- 
out the country, giving, say, 150,000 in all for the use of the armies of the 
Confederacy." That is, fifteen-fold more than, according to Lord Wolseley, 
I had " avowed " as necessary to " overawe '' the United States. So earn- 
est were the efforts made by the Confederate Government to increase this 
number of effective arms that the chief-of-ordnance report of July 1, 1863, 
shows that there was then a total of infantry arms, acquired from all 
sources, of 400,000. 



432 APPENDIX 

ern States to gather together, with as much haste as possi- 
ble, mechanics skilled in the manufacture and use of ord- 
nance and rifle machinery, the preparation of fixed ammu- 
nition, percussion caps, etc. " He had not selected all his 
cabinet, nor, indeed, had he so much as a private secretary 
at his command, as the letter of instructions which he 
presented for my guidance was written with his own hand. 
This letter was very full and precise, frequently descending 
into detail and manifesting an acquaintance with bureau 
duties scarcely to have been expected," etc. 

Subsequently, upon the appointment of Mr, Mai lory as 
Secretary of the Navy, he sent, March 13, 1861, a letter fur- 
ther instructing Captain Semmes to look out for any vessels 
suited for coast defence ; and Captain Semmes writes : 
*' Under these instructions I made diligent search in the 
waters of New York for such steamers as were wanted, but 
none could be found." Admiral Semmes adds : 

"I found the people everywhere not only willing, but 
anxious, to contract with me. I purchased large quantities 
of percussixjn caps in the city of New York, and sent them 
by express, without any disguise, to Montgomery. I made 
contracts for batteries of light artillery, powder, and other 
munitions, and succeeded in getting large quantities of the 
powder shipped. I made a contract for removal to the 
Southern States of a complete set of machinery for rifling 
cannon, with the requisite skilled workmen to put it in 
operation." 

The interference of the civil authorities prevented many of 
these contracts from being fulfilled at a later day. 

General Gorgas, chief of ordnance, writes : 

** As to a further supply of arms, steps had been taken by 



LORD WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 433 

the President to import these and other ordnance stores from 
Europe, and ]\Iajor Caleb Huse, graduate of West Point, and 
at that moment professor in the University of Alabama, was 
selected to go abroad and procure them. He left Montgom- 
ery under instructions from me early in April, 1861, with a 
credit of £10,000 from Mr. Meminger. The appointment 
proved a happy one; for he succeeded, with very little 
money, in contracting for a good supply and in running my 
department in debt for nearly half a million — the very best 
proof of his fitness for his place and of a financial ability 
which supplemented the narrowness of Mr. Meminger's 
purse." 

II. — "The man who neglected to buy the East Indian fleets 
which happy chance and the zeal of subordinates threw in his 
way" 

My first knowledge of the existence of such a story was 
derived from the New York Sun of November 17, 1878, in 
which appeared what purported to be an interview with 
General G. T. Beauregard to the effect that he had gone " with 
the messenger of Messrs. Frazer & Co. to Montgomery, 
had introduced the messenger to the Secretary of War, and 
took advantage of the opportunity to urge upon him the 
immediate adoption of the proposition, which was to buy 
some six large and strong steamers just built in England 
for the East India company." I therefore wrote to Gen- 
eral L. P. Walker, ex-Secretary of War of the Confederate 
States, sending him the New York Sun and requesting such 
information as he might have in regard to the matter, and I 
received the following reply: 



28 



434 APPENDIX. 

HuNTSViLLE, Ala., December 10, 1878. 
Hon. Jefferson Davis, Beauvoir, Hiss. 

Dear Sir : — I have read the article in the New York Sun, 
which you enclosed in your letter to me of the 2d inst. I do 
not remember the interview with me mentioned by General 
Beauregard, nor that any proposition was submitted to the 
Confederate Government for the sale to it of any steamers of 
the character stated here. If any such proposition was made 
it has passed from my recollection. 

Yours Respectfully, 

L. P. "Walker. 

To a like inquiry addressed to Mr. Meminger, ex-Secre- 
tary of the Confederate Treasury, he replied, on November 
27, 1887 : 

Charleston, S. C, November 27, 1878. 
Hon. Jefferson Davis, Beauvoir, Hiss. 

My Dear Sir : — I have no recollection of having heard of 
the proposition referred to by General Beauregard. I remem- 
ber my having written to Mr. Trenholm, one of the firm of 
John Frazer & Co., to come on to Montgomery to present the 
advantages of establishing a depot for cotton and munitions 
of war at Bermuda and some station in the West Indies, and 
that he came on and appeared before the Cabinet and warmly 
advocated this plan, and that it met with my cordial ap- 
proval, but it was not approved by the Cabinet. 

I remember nothing of any proposal to purchase the steam- 
ers of the India Company. Mr. William Trenholm remem- 
bers his appearance before the Cabinet in behalf of the scheme 
above mentioned. His address was confined to that scheme, 
but he says he made the proposition to the Secretary of War 
and to Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, to purchase 



LORD WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 435 

the steamers of the Oriental Company, but that they had 
many grounds of objection to the purchase, such as the great 
draught of water, which would prevent their entering South- 
ern ports, their construction of iron and the want of money. 
He has no recollection of ever having spoken to me or you on 
the subject, nor did it enter into the statement made before the 
Cabinet; and as to myself, I have no recollection of having been 
consulted either by Mr. Mallory or the Secretary of the War. 
Very truly yours, 

C. G. Meminger. 

It would be needless to consider why T " refused " a pro- 
position which was never made to me, and can only remand 
both the refusal and the reason for it to the region of imag- 
ination from which they sprang. 

The Confederate States, being without ship yards and with- 
out skilled workmen with whom to build cruisers and to pro- 
vide for coast defences, were compelled to look abroad both 
to buy and to build the vessels they required. Capt. J. D. 
Bullock, a well-known officer of the United States Navy, had, 
immediately after his resignation, reported at Montgomery 
for orders, and was selected to go abroad as our chief naval 
agent in Europe. He left Montgomery on May 9, 1861, to 
get cruising ships of suitable type afloat with the quickest 
possible despatch, and to buy and forward naval supplies of 
all kinds without delay. Whoever has read his work, en- 
titled, "Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe,'^ 
will not fail to perceive how fortunate was the selection for 
the vitally important duty on which he was sent abroad. 
The diligence and energy with which he filled the office in- 
trusted to him are attested by the list of ships built and 
bought by him in Europe by the Confederate States Navy 



436 APPENDIX. 

Department, viz. : five steam cruisers, one sailing vessel, eight 
steam blockade-runners, one steamer for harbor defence, four 
steamers contracted for, but unfinished at the close of the war; 
total, fifteen furnished and four under construction. Nor was 
this all which was contributed ; for, meagre as the means 
were from the beginning to the end of the war, there were 
continuous efforts to create and utilize all existing means for 
defence. To the Confederacy the world is indebted for the 
introduction of iron-clad ships. A vessel abandoned by the 
United States was shielded with railroad iron for the want of 
plates, and made a record at Hampton Roads which can never 
be forgotten. 

I have just received (August 13) a letter from Captain 
Bullock, containing important testimony. Captain Bullock, 
as stated above, was appointed by me, when Provisional Pres- 
ident, as the sole agent of the Confederate States in Europe 
for the purchase of arms, cruisers, transports, and naval mu- 
nitions of war. He was appointed a captain of the Confed- 
erate States as soon as he resigned his commission in the 
United States Navy, His letter is as follows : 

30 Sydenham Avenue, Sifton Park, Liverpool, 

July 29, 1889. 

My Dear Sir : — Mr. Stoess handed me your letter of the 
15th instant this morning, and I hasten to reply by the first 
returning steamer. I have seen the book to which you al- 
lude, namely, "The Military Operations of General G. T. 
Beauregard," but, in June, 1884, Mr. Charles K. Prioleau, 
who was then living in Bruges, sent me a copy of the Charles- 
ton News and Courier, which contained a long, interesting, 
and very able review of the work. 



LORD WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 437 

The reviewer gave many extracts from the book, and 
among them one stating, in effect, that a fleet of steamers be- 
longing to the East Indian Navy had been offered to the Con- 
federate Government at the beginning of the war, and had 
been declined by them, and that the offer had been made by 
or through Mr. Charles K. Prioleau. Mr. Prioleau was the 
senior partner of the Liverpool firm of Frazer, Trenholm & 
Co., a firm affiliated with Messrs. John Frazer & Co., of 
Charleston, and the Liverpool branch held the position of the 
bankers and financial agents of the Confederate Government 
during the war of secession. Mr, Prioleau was then brought 
into close personal and official relations with me during the 
whole period of that war, and, as he had never mentioned to 
me this alleged offer to the Confederate Government, nor had 
ever drawn my attention to any such ships, I was greatly 
surprised by the statement in the review of " General Beaure- 
guard's Military Operations." I wrote at once to Mr. Prio- 
leau, asking him for information, and requesting him, if there 
was any truth in the statement, to tell me why he never men- 
tioned the matter to me. He wrote me a very long letter in 
reply, much of its contents being wholly irrelevant to the 
point at issue, but I enclose herewith a paper marked A*, 
which is a verbatim copy of all that he wrote in respect to 
my specific inquiries about the alleged offer to the Confederate 
Government. 

When I went to Richmond in October, 18G1, to consult 
with Mr. Mallory about our naval operations in Europe, he 
dwelt much upon the wish of the Government to get cruisers 
and also armored ships to break the blockade. It is not pos- 
sible to believe that he would have omitted all allusion to the 
East Indian Company's fleet if he had ever heard of those 



438 APPENDIX. 

vessels. I had just returned from England with the " Fin- 
gal," and, as before mentioned, Mr. Prioleau had given me 
not a hint of the alleged oiFer. After my return to Europe, I 
both heard of and saw some of the ships, but a glance satisfied 
me that to buy them for the Confederate Navy would have 
been a senseless waste of money. They were very big ships, 
drawing too much water to enter any Confederate port on the 
Atlantic coast. At the time I saw them they were wholly 
dismantled, and without guns or any military equipment. 
To arm and man them for the purpose of attacking the block- 
ading ships would have required the resources of a well-fur- 
nished dock-yard, and the right to enlist seamen without in- 
terference. It would have been impossible to equip so large 
a naval force upon the high seas, or at some secret place of 
rendezvous, as was done with the "Alabama" and other 
cruisers. To put those ten ships in fighting condition would 
have required about one hundred heavy guns, and from 
twelve to fifteen hundred seamen, stokers, etc., with a large 
supply of small arms and ordnance stores. It would also 
have been necessary to have several large coal-transports to 
accompany the fleet, as the ships had only auxiliary sail 
power, and were dependent upon steam for motive power. 

If Mr. Mallory had ever suggested the purchase of those 
ships I should just have mentioned the foregoing facts, and 
have drawn his attention to the proclamation of Her Britan- 
nic Majesty, the British neutrality laws, and the restrictions 
in respect to the coaling of belligerent ships proclaimed by 
all the neutral powers, and he would have perceived the im- 
practicability of such an undertaking. At a later period of 
the war Mr. Mallory did direct me to examine two vessels, 
which I have reason to believe belonged to the same fleet. 



LORD WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 439 

On page 253, Vol. II. of " The Secret Service of the Con- 
federate States," you will find my report with reference to 
them. I think at the moment of nothing else worth men- 
tioning on the subject of your letter, but will be glad to 
give you any further information you may wish, if in my 
power to do so. 

Very faithfully yours, 

James D. Bullock. 
*A. 

Bruges, June 21, 1884. 
My Dear Bullock : — 

. . . As regards the ten steamers, I thought you knew 
about them. They were a part of the East India Company's 
fleet, the " Golden Fleece," " Jason," " Hydaspes," etc. ; they 
were offered to me at the very beginning of the war, before 
you came over, and before the Queen's proclamation. My 
idea was that if they could have been armed and got out they 
would have swept away every vestige of a Federal blockader 
then upon the water. Frazer, Trenholm & Co. had not then 
been appointed agents of the Government, and I did not offer 
these vessels to the Government, but I mentioned them in a 
private letter to Mr. G. A. Trenholm, leaving it to his dis- 
cretion to put it before them. 

As a matter of fact, I never got any reply to this letter 
and never knew that the ships had even been proposed to the 
Government till long after the war. No further inquiries 
were ever made of me concerning them from any quarter. 
About nine or ten years (or perhaps not quite so ranch) ago, 
General Beauregard wrote me, saying that he was engaged 
upon his history, that he had heard about these steamers 
through William Trenholm, who had referred him to me for 



440 APPENDIX. 

the particulars, and asked me if I would give him a state- 
ment, and allow him to mention my name as to my part of 
the transaction, to which I willingly consented and gave him 
just the facts stated above. . Of course, I know now that the 
enterprise would have been impossible, but we did not know 
anything for certain then, and any opinion of mine would 
have been that of a layman and on its face valueless ; there- 
fore, when I heard no more I naturally concluded either that 
Mr. Trenholm had not thought it worth while to propose the 
undertaking, or that the Government had been advised 
against it by their competent officers, and there is no doubt 
now that they were quite right not to risk so large a sum of 
money on so doubtful an enterprise, even if they could have 
readily raised it. It is, however, a little strange that, if the 
Government knew of these ships at the time you left, they 
did not instruct you to look at them. On the whole, I am 
inclined to think that they were never offered to the Govern- 
ment at all, but William Trenholm knew of them from hav- 
ing access to his father's correspondence. . . 

I am, ever yours, sincerely, C. K. Prioleau. 
To Hon. Jefferson Davis. 

In the face of facts like these, and many others to which 
the want of space does not permit me to refer, this self-con- 
stituted authority upon military affairs and civil government, 
ignorantly or maliciously — to me it matters not which — pro- 
ceeds on an assumption which had no real foundation to 
characterize me as 

III. — " The ruler who could not see that the one vital neces- 
sity for the South was, at all sacrifice and at all hazard, to 
keep the ports open," 



LORD WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 44I 

An Englishman of ordinary intelligence might be expected 
to know how vigilant his government was in preventing even 
unarmed merchantmen from leaving their ports, if any one 
would allege that they were intended to be converted into 
war-ships for the use of the Confederate States. The espio- 
nage to which Captain Bullock was subjected and the delays 
which resulted from forcing him to appeal to the courts must 
show how flippant and absurd it is to assert that a fleet of 
steamers might have been purchased, manned and equipped, 
and sent out as cruisers to raise the blockade of Confederate 
ports. Captain Bullock, vigilant and active, inquiring as 
well in the ports of Great Britain as those of the Continent, 
seems never to have found this fleet of steamers so admirably 
adapted to war purposes that with them the Gulf and Atlan- 
tic seaboard might have been so cleanly swept that the 
commander of the fleet should have carried a broom at his 
masthead. 

The next arraignment by Lord Wolseley's unbridled im- 
agination is to describe him as 

IV.— ^" The ruler who rejected all means proposed by others 
for placing the finances of the Confederacy on a sound basis." 

This is understood to be the long-ago exploded theory that 
the confederacy should have sent out the cotton crop of 1860- 
'61 and placed it as the basis of credit in Europe. In an- 
swer to this visionary charge against the administration as 
the cause of Confederate failure, Mr. C. G. Meminger, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, on the 27th of March, 1874, wrote 
to the editor of the Charleston News and Courier a letter, 
from which the following conclusive extracts are made : 

"The Confederate Gov^ernment was organized in February, 
1861. The blockade was instituted in May, thus leaving a 



442 • APPENDIX. 

period of three mouths in which the whole cotton crop on 
hand — say 4,000,000 bales — ought, according to this military 
financier, to have been shipped abroad. This would have 
required a fleet of four thousand ships, allowing one thousand 
bales to the ship ! Where would these vessels have been pro- 
cured in the face of the notification of the blockade? and was 
not as much of the cotton shipped by private enterprise as 
could have been shipped by the Government ? When so 
shipped, the proceeds of the sale were, in most cases, sold to 
the Government in the shape of bills of exchange. The 
superior advantage of this plan is evinced by the fact that 
throuo-hout the year the Government exchanged its own notes 
for bills on England at par, with which it paid for all its 

arms and munitions of war. . . . 

"C. G. Meminger." 

In answer to the same vague assertion, G. A. Trenholm, 
the successor of Mr. Meminger in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, wrote to the editor of the Charleston Neivs and Courier 
a full answer, from which I make the following extract : 

" Let us examine the facts upon which this theory rests, 
and without the support of which it must necessarily fall to 
the ground. The crop of cotton available for this scheme 
must have been that of 1860-61. It could not have been 
the crop of which the seed was not yet put in the ground 
when the Government was formed at Montgomery. What 
was, then the crop of 1860-'61 ? Was it 4,000,000 to 5,000,- 
000 bales, and was it accessible for immediate exportation ? 
. . . Up to the 28th of February, the month that gave birth 
to the infant government, 3,000,000 bales had been received 
at the seaports, and the great bulk of it had been exported to 
Europe, or been sold to the New England spinners. By the 1st 



I 



LOED WOLSELEY'S MISTAKES. 443 

of May 586,000 bales more had been received and sold. Eng- 
land and the Continent took 3,127,000 bales; the New Eng- 
land spinners 654,000 bales. It thus will be seen that before 
the new government was fairly organized the entire crop was 
already beyond its reach. Another crop followed, but the ex- 
portation in any quantity was an absolute impossibility. 
There were no vessels in the ports of the Confederacy. The 
last had left before the expiration of the sixty days allowed to 
foreign tonnage. The only vessels that took cotton after that 
time were the foreign steamers that ran the blockade to pro- 
cure cargoes for the owners. They came in small numbers, 
and one or two at a time. Had the Government seized one 
of them for its own use, or prevented them from leaving with 
cotton, they would have ceased to come." 

These extracts from the letters of two of the ablest finan- 
ciers of the South, whose close relation to the Treasury De- 
partment gave them the best opportunity of knowing what 
could, should or might have been done, will, it is . hoped, be 
satisfactory to any who have doubted the propriety of the 
financial policy of the Confederacy, or who have not seen that 
the plan proposed was utterly impracticable. 

Jefferson Davis. 



A PATRIOTIC LEGACY TO THE PEOPLE 
OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

BY JEFFERSON DAVIS- 

Fayetteville, N. C, Nov. 21. — The following letter 
from the Hon. Jefferson Davis was read to-day by Hon. 
J. Green : 

Beauvoie, Miss., Oct. 30th, 1889. 
Messrs. Wharton J. Green, James C. IleRae, C. W, Broad- 
foot, Neil W. Ray, W. C. McDufe, Charlotte: 
Gentlemen — Your letter inviting me to attend North 
Carolina's Centennial, to be held at Fayetteville on the 21st 
of November next, was duly received, but this acknowl- 
edgment has been delayed under the hope that an im- 
provement in my health would enable me to be present as 
invited. As the time approaches I find that cherished 
hope unrealized and that I must regretfully confess my 
inability to join you in the commemorative celebration. It 
has been my sincere wish to meet the people of the "Old 
North State" on the occasion which will naturally cause 
them, with just pride, to trace the historic river of their 
years to its source in the colony of Albemarle. All along 
that river stand monuments of fidelity to the inalienable 
rights of the people, even when an infant successfully re- 
sisting executive usurpation, and in the defence of the priv- 
ileges guaranteed by charter, boldly defying Kings, Lords 
and Commons. Always self-reliant, yet not vainly self- 
asserting, she provided for her own defence, while giving 
444 



A PATRIOTIC LEGACY. 445 

material aid to her neighbors, as she regarded all of 
the British colonies of America. Thus she sent troops, 
armed and equipped, for service in both Virginia and South 
Carolina; also dispatched a ship from the port of Wil- 
mington with food for the sufferers in Boston after the 
closing of that port bv Great Britain. In her declaration 
that the cause of Boston was the cause of all, there was 
not only the assertion of a community of rights and a pur- 
pose to defend them, but self-abnegation of the commer- 
cial advantages which would probably accrue from the clos- 
ing of a rival port. 

Without diminution of regard for the great and good 
men of the other colonies, I have been led to special 
veneration of the men of North Carolina, as the first to 
distinctly declare for State independence, and from first to 
last to uphold the right of a people to govern themselves. 

I do not propose to ' discuss the vexed question of the 
Mecklenburg resolutions of May, 1775, which, from the 
similarity of expression to the great Declaration of Inde- 
pendence of July, 1776, have created much contention ; 
because the claim of North Carolina rests on a broader 
foundation than the resolves of the meeting at Mecklen- 
burg, which deserve to be preserved as the outburst of a 
brave, liberty-loving people on the receipt of news of the 
combat at Concord between British soldiers and citizens of 
Massachusetts. The broader foundations referred to are the 
records of the events preceding and suceeding the meeting at 
Mecklenburg, and the proceedings of the Provincial Congress, 
which met at Hillsboro in August, 1775. Before this con- 
gress convened North Carolina, in disregard of opposition by 
the Governor, had sent delegates to represent her in the gen- 



446 APPENDIX. 

eral congress to be held in Philadelphia, and had denounced 
the attack upon Boston, and had appointed committees of 
safety with such far-reaching functions as belong to revolu- 
tionary times only. The famous Stamp Act of Parliament 
■was openly resisted by men of highest reputation, a vessel 
bringing the stamps was seized and the commander bound 
not to permit them to be landed. These things were done in 
open day by men who wore no disguise and shunned no ques- 
tion. Before the congress of the province had assembled the 
last royal Governor of North Carolina had fled, to escape 
from the indignation of a people who, burdened but not bent 
by oppression, had resolved to live or die as freemen. The 
congress at Hillsboro went earnestly to work, not merely to 
declare independence but to provide the means for maintain- 
ing it. The congress, feeling quite equal to the occasion, 
proceeded to make laws for raising and organizing troops, for 
supplying money, and to meet the contingency of a blockade 
of her sea ports, offered bounties to stimulate the production 
of the articles most needful in time of war. On the 12th of 
April, 1776, the Continental Congress being then in session, 
and with much diversity of opinion as to the proper course to 
be pursued under this condition of affairs, the North Caro- 
lina Congress resolved " that the delegates for this colony in 
the Continental Congress be empowered to concur with the 
delegates of the other colonies in declaring independency and 
forming foreign alliances, reserving to the colony the sole and 
exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws for the 
colony," etc., etc. 

This, I believe, was the first distinct declaration for sepa- 
ration from Great Britain and State independence, and there 
is much besides priority to evoke admiration. North Caro- 



A PATRIOTIC LEGACY. 447 

lina had, by many acts of resistance to the British authorities, 
provoked their vengeance, yet she dared to lead in defiance ; 
yet no danger, however dread in the event of her isolation, 
could make her accept co-operation, save with the reservation 
of supremacy in regard to her own constitution and laws — 
the sacred principle of " community independence " and gov- 
ernment founded on the consent of the governed. After 
having done her whole duty in the war for independence and 
become a free, sovereign and independent State, she entered 
into the Confederation with these rights and powers recog- 
nized as unabridged. When experience proved the articles 
of Confederation to be inadequate to the needs of good gov- 
ernment, she agreed to a general convention for their amend- 
ment. The convention did not limit its labors to amendment 
of the articles, but proceeded to form a new plan of govern- 
ment, and, adhering to the cardinal principle that govern- 
ments must be derived from the consent of the governed, 
submitted the new plan to the people of the several States, to 
be adopted or rejected as each by and for itself should decide. 
It is to be remembered that the articles of Confederation for 
the " United States of America " declared that " the Union 
shall be perpetual," and that no alteration should be made in 
the said articles unless it should " be confirmed by the Legis- 
lature of every State." True to her creed of State sover- 
eignty, North Carolina recognized the power of such States as 
chose to do so to withdraw from the Union, and by the same 
token her own unqualified right to decide whether or not she 
would subscribe to the proposed compact for a more perfect 
Union, and in which it is to be observed the declaration for 
perpetuity was omitted. In the hard school of experience 
she had learned the danger to popular liberty from a govern- 



448 APPENDIX. 

ment which could claim to be the final judge of its own 
powers. She had fought a long and devastating war for 
State independence, and was not willing to put in jeopardy 
the priceless jewel she had gained. After a careful exami- 
nation, it was concluded that the proposed constitution did 
not sufficiently guard against usurpation by the usual resort 
to implication of powers not expressly granted, and declined 
to act upon the general assurances that the deficiency would 
soon be supplied by the needful amendments. In the mean- 
time, State after State had acceded to the new union, until the 
requisite number had been obtained for the establishment of 
the " Constitution between the States ratifying the same." 
With characteristic self-reliance, North Carolina confronted 
the prospect of isolation, and calmly resolved, if so it must 
be, to stand as one rather than subject to hazard her most 
prized possession, community independence. Confiding in 
the security offered by the first ten amendments to tlie Con- 
stitution, especially the ninth and tenth of the series, North 
Carolina voluntarily acceded to the new union. The tenth 
amendment restricted the functions of the Federal govern- 
ment to the exercise of the powers delegated to it by the 
States, all of which were expressly stipulated. Beyond that limit 
nothing could be done rightfully. If covertly done, under color 
of law, or by reckless usurpation of an extraneous majority 
which, feeling power, should disregard right, had the State 
no peaceful remedy ? Could she, as a State in a confederation, 
the bed rock of which is the consent of its members, Be bound 
by a compact which others broke to her injury ? Had her 
reserved rights no other than a paper barrier to protect them 
against invasion ? 

Surely the heroic patriots and wise statesmen of North 



A PATKIOTIC LEGACY. 449 

Carolina, by their sacrifices, utterances and deeds, have shown 
what their answer would have been to these questions, if they 
had been asked, on the day when, in one convention, they 
ratified the amended Constitution of the United States. Her 
exceptional delay in ratification marks her vigilant care for 
the rights she had so early asserted and so steadily maintained. 

Of her it may be said, as it was of Sir Walter Scott in his 
youth, that he was "always the first in a row and the last out 
of it." In the peaceful repose which followed the Revolution 
all her interests were progressive. 

Farms, school-houses and towns rose over a subdued wilder- 
ness, and with a mother's joy she saw her sons distinguished 
in the public service by intelligence, energy and perseverance, 
and by the integrity without which all other gifts are but as 
tinsel. North Carolina grew apace in all which constitutes 
power. Until 1812 she was required, as a State of the 
Union, to resist aggressions on the high seas in the visitation 
of American merchant vessels and the impressment of Ameri- 
can seamen by the armed cruisers of Great Britain. 

These seamen generally belonged to the New England 
States ; none, probably, were North Carolinians ; but her old 
spirit was vital still ; the cause of one was the cause of all, as 
she announced when Boston was under embargo. 

At every roll-call for the common defence she answered 
" Here.'* When blessed peace returned she stacked her arms, 
for which she had no prospective use. Her love for her neigh- 
bors had been tried and not found wanting in the time of their 
need; why should she anticipate hostility from them? 

The envy, selfish jealousy and criminal hate of a Cain 
could not come near to her heart. If not to suspect such vice 
in others be indiscreet incredulity it is a knightly virtue and 
29 



460 APPENDIX. 

part of an honest nature. In many years of military and 
civil service it has been my good fortune to know the sons of 
North Carolina under circumstances of trial, and I could make 
a list of those deserving honorable mention which would too 
far extend this letter, already, I fear, tediously long. 

Devotion to principle, self-reliance and inflexible adherence 
to resolution when adopted, accompanied by conservative 
caution, were the characteristics displayed by North Carolina 
in both her colonial and State history. All these qualities 
were exemplified in her action on the day the anniversary 
of which you commemorate. If there be any, not likely to 
be found with you, bat possibly elsewhere, who shall ask 
" how then could North Carolina consistently enact her ordi- 
nance of secession in 1861?" he is referred to the Declaration 
of Independence of 1776, to the articles of Confederation of 
1777, for a perpetual union of the States from the union so 
established; to the treaty of 1783, recognizing the indepen- 
dence of the States severally and distinctively; to the Con- 
stitution of the United Statas, with its first ten amendments; 
to the time-honored resolutions of 1789-1790; that from 
these, one and all, he may learn that the State, having won 
her independence by heavy sacrifices, had never surrendered it 
nor had ever attempted to delegate the inalienable rights of 
the people. How valiantly her sons bore themselves in the 
war between the States the lists of the killed and wounded 
testify. She gave them a sacrificial offering on the altar of 
the liberties their fathers had won, and had left as an inheri- 
tance to their posterity. Many sleep far from the land of 
their nativity. Peace to their ashes. Honor to their mem- 
ory and the mothers who bore them. 

Faithfully, Jeffeeson Davis. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS.* 

THE death of Jefferson Davis marks the departure of one 
who for nearly a generation has had only a historical 
interest to the American people. And it is as a histor- 
ical figure, as far removed from the stern judgments of the 
hour as Bolingbroke or Pitt, that he will be viewed even by 
those who, under the cruel pressure of terrible events, were 
wont to regard him as the incarnation of treason and rapine. 
We have been so long accustomed to regard Mr. Davis as the 
embodiment of the Southern Confederacy, as the object of ex- 
treme hatred by one class of our people and of extreme adu- 
lation by another, that it is difficult to assign him a true place 
among the rulers of men. A generation must pass and many 
hidden things become known before the tribunal of history 
will pass its final judgment upon his character and his 
career. 

We know enough of the inner workings of that extraordi- 
nary movement which developed into civil war to know 
that Mr. Davis was not an original extreme secessionist, that 
he cherished Union hopes long after Yancey, Rhett, Toombs 
and their fiery associates had become enemies of the Re- 
public. 

His course recalls the reluctance with which Washington 
and Franklin accepted separation from Great Britain, and 

* It has been thought to be of interest to many of the South to see the 
editorial on Jefferson Davis of the iSVw York Daily Herald, which is a rep- 
resentative paper of the North. — (Pubs.) 

451 



452 APPENDIX. 

how they were driven into revolution by the fiery counsels of 
JefiFerson and the Adamses. 

In the Southern Confederacy as in the Revolution, when 
the time came for action Davis was selected because he repre- 
sented the conservatism and character of the secession move- 
ment. The extreme secessionists supported Robert Toombs, 
and Confederate leaders have lamented that Toombs, with 
his passion and fury, his supposed Danton-like energy and 
animosities, was not at the head of the South rather than the 
military martinet Davis. They believed in a volcanic, cha- 
otic, anarchical war- -the South streaming over the North 
like the Huns over the Roman provinces. But the conserv- 
ative counsels prevailed, and the reluctant secessionist Davis 
became the President of the Confederacy. 

We question if the volcanic policy which Toombs favored 
would have helped the Confederacy, Historical criticism 
shows the fatuity of that whole secession movement, and the 
impossibility of ultimate success against the resolution and 
patience of the North. Mr. Davis, however, did as much 
with his Confederacy as was possible. He maintained it as a 
political force for four years, standing by it with intense, un- 
reasoning, stubborn devotion, never murmuring nor admitting 
defeat, proud to the end, the last of the Confederates to furl 
the Confederate flag, awed by no reverse, discouraged by no 
disaster, obstinate, gloomy, implacable, taking the sternest re- 
sponsibilities, offering no compromise, seeking none, never 
veiling his cause by apologies, nor until the hour of his death 
showing the least regret. "We may give him the praise that 
history awards to Pitt for that statesman's resistance to Na- 
poleon. Yet this praise brings its condemnation. If Pitt 
had shown true statesmanship he would have come to terms 



COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 453 

with Bonaparte at Amiens and saved England many a day of 
sorrow and shame. And if Davis had had the highest polit- 
ical courage he would have seen that every soldier killed 
after Gettysburg and Vicksburg was sacrificed in a hopeless 
cause, and that then his Confederacy was doomed. 

In the essential elements of statesmanship Davis will be 
judged as the rival and parallel of Lincoln. When the two 
men came face to face, as leaders of two mighty forces, bitter 
was Northern sorrow that Providence had given the South so 
ripe and rare a leader and the North an uncouth advocate 
from the woods. But it was not long before the North was 
to realize with gratitude the wisdom of Providence in so or- 
daining it. Lincoln steadily grew to his work. Flexible, 
patient, keen, resolute, far-seeing, with pathetic common sense 
and a strange power over the hearts of men, Lincoln led and 
fashioned his hosts, never advancing to recede, outmatching 
Davis at every point by his diplomacy, his knowledge of 
politics, his power to wait as well as his power to strike 
crushing blows. It is painful to contrast this nimble, subtle 
genius, adapting himself to the mutations of every hour, with 
the cold mathematics of Davis, who managed politics upon 
the barren dogmas of Calhoun and conducted war like a tutor 
at West Point. The man who saw the skies above and the 
horizon about him was to overmaster the precise metaphysi- 
cian who saw nothing but his tasks and lived in the tradi- 
tions of an antecedent generation. 

The later years of Mr. Davis have been marked by a spirit 
which grew impatient with advancing age. His invectives 
against the North were heard by those against whom they 
were directed with pity. We felt almost as if he were saying 
with Lear, " You do me wrong to take me out of the grave." 



454 APPENDIX. 

They were truly the words of a foolish, fond old man, who 
could not outlive the remembrance of the fact that he was 
once the ruler of a people, the leader of a lost cause. He 
lived and died in the indulgent recognition of his countrymen. 
His Confederacy has gone into the limbo of dead political ex- 
periments. The knightly genius of Lee, the sombre fury of 
Jackson, the gallantry of Stuart, the narrow fanaticism of 
Sydney Johnson, the proud, unpausiug valor of the hundreds 
of thousands who followed them to the supreme fate of war 
— all will live in song and story as an undying part of our 
history. And in this history no one will hold a more conspi- 
cuous place than the stern, implacable, resolute leader, whose 
cold, thin lips have closed forever in that beloved South 
which he served with passion if not with wisdom. 



LONDON PRESS ON DAVIS. 

WHAT THE ENGI.ISH EDITORS SAY ABOUT THE CONFED- 
ERACY'S PRESIDENT. 

From the New York Herald. 

London, Dec. 7, 1889.— The London papers print long 
obituaries of Jefferson Davis. In their editorials they say- 
that it would be difficult to name an American who for the 
last forty years has occupied a more conspicuous position in 
the eyes of his fellow-countrymen. 

LIBEKAL OPINION. 

The Nms says : — " The splendid clemency of the great 
popular government in the case of Mr. Davis has been justi- 
fied by the results. Mr. Davis passing his old age in peace 
has stood as an evidence of the absolute security of the federal 
system." 

The Morning Chronicle says : — " In the nature of things 
Mr. Davis can never be recognized as a national hero. Still 
he was a man of no ordinary mould, and was a rebel only 
because the contest he entered upon ended in failure." 

TWO TORY VIEWS. 
All the evening papers last evening had leaders on Jeffer- 
son Davis. The Globe recalled Mr. Gladstone's eulogium, 
including the famous phrase so much criticised at the time, 
" Jefferson Davis has created a nation ; " adding that if he 
had not created a nation it was because such a creation 
was clearly not possible in the conditions; that if states- 

455 



456 APPENDIX. 

manship, military genius and devotion on the part of a 
whole people were sufficient for the foundation of a State, 
a slave-holding republic would have been established. The 
enterprise failed because success in the conditions was im- 
possible. 

The St. James* Gazette doubts whether Davis will take a 
historical position as one of the world's great men. He 
was a man of great persistency of purpose and keen polit- 
ical vision. He had wonderful luck in discovering Lee — 
one of the greatest generals of the age — and Secretary 
Benjamin, an exceedingly shrewd administrator. The St. 
James^ Gazette draws a striking comparison between Davis 
and some of his famous contemporaries, and especially com- 
pares Lincoln's unique personality and deeply cherished 
memory with the absence of enthusiasm for Davis, or even 
of general interest in him. Lee, it says, is glorified in the 
Old World as in the New ; Stonewall Jackson is almost 
glorified in England, while as Davis departs from the 
scene of human activities it is doubtful if a single person 
outside the immediate circle of his relatives is affected by 
a passing thrill of emotion. 



NORTHERN ESTIMATE OF DAVIS. 

TENACIOUS AND OBSTINATE AND NOT SUCCESSFUI. AS A 

LEADER. 
From the New York Herald. 

A QUARTER of a century ago the announcement of the 
death of Jefferson Davis would have fallen like a 
monster bomb in this city. Yesterday it was read 
and discussed with the calm interest that was given to the 
President's message. 

Some estimate of Mr. Davis' character from representative 
men who knew him well are given herewith. 

The first is from Burton N. Harrison, who was private 
secretary to President Davis during the war between the 
States, but is now a member of the New York Bar, with an 
office at No. 120 Broadway. Mr. Harrison said : — 

'' Yes, I was secretary to President Davis during what was 
called the ' permanent government ' of the Confederate States. 
My relations to him were of the closest intimacy, and I have 
cherished for him the most grateful and affectionate regard. 
He was of a lofty character, guided by a sense of duty 
throughout life, singularly pure in every act and in all his 
thoughts. 

" Mr. Davis was an aristocrat, reticent, stately, courteous, 
always disinterested and of an undaunted courage and rare 
singleness of purpose. He had scholarly tastes and was 
familiar with our older literature and with the writers of the 
first third of this century, but when I was with him, had not 

457 



458 APPENDIX. 

found time for the books of later days. Mr. Davis was a 
soldier always and a good one. 

HE KNEW WHAT THE SOUTH MUST MEET. 

" Mr. Davis had been reared in the school of strictest con- 
struction of the constitution. He had no doubts of the rights 
or of the duty of the Southern States after the Presidential 
election in 1860, but it cost him the keenest suffering and 
sorrow to withdraw from under the flag he had loved. He 
knew so well the power and population and resources of the 
States of the North and the unreadiness and comparative 
poverty of the less populous States of the South and their 
many disadvantages in a long war as to look upon disunion 
and its certain consequences with horror. He had been a 
leader among the States' rights men in debate, but shrunk 
from actual secession. It was with sincere reluctance he ac- 
cepted the Presidency of the Confederate States, and after the 
war had passed its first stage and the North had become prac- 
tically unanimous in prosecuting it he felt he was struggling 
against almost certain defeat, until General Lee's remarkable 
campaigns persuaded him against his own judgment that the 
South could conquer an independence." 

PRYOK'S ESTIMATE OF DAVIS. 

General Roger A. Pryor, the well-known lawyer of this 
city, and at one time a prominent leader of the Southern Con- 
federacy, said : — "I first met Davis in 1855, when I was 
editor of the Washington Union. He was then in the Senate. 
I knew him better as Secretary of War, and from that time 
until the end of the war we were thrown much together. 
Right here I wish to say it is a mistake to suppose that Davis 



NORTHERN ESTIMATE OF DAVIS. 459 

was a secessionist. On the contrary, he was originally op- 
posed to secession. Graduate of West Point and Secretary of 
War as he was, it was to his interest and disposition to main- 
tain the Union. He even made a speech at Portland, Me., 
when Secretary of War, in which his devotion to the Union 
is expressed in strong language. The ultra party in his own 
State drove him to secession against his better judgment. I 
say this in justice to him." 

" As chief of the Southern Confederacy he was not re- 
garded as a complete success. He had little tact and not 
very much administrative ability, though, it is true, he was a 
good Secretary of War. On the other hand, however, he was 
a man of high principle and entirely loyal to the Southern 
cause. He was also quite religious and regularly attended an 
Episcopal Church." 

GENERAL PORTER'S ESTIMATE. 

" I knew Mr. Davis intimately," said General Horace 
Porter. " I was an instructor at West Point just before the 
war broke out, and Mr. Davis was then the president of a 
board appointed to revise the course of instruction. He was 
a man of great intelligence, had a remarkable fund of infor- 
mation on all subjects, but was a man of very arbitrary char- 
acter, very dogmatic in his opinions, and on this account often 
made a great many enemies where he might have made 
friends by a more conciliatory course. 

" He was a man of a great deal of tenacity of purpose, and 
this trait was displayed, unfortunately, in the latter part of 
the war, when he persisted in fighting until they reached the 
last ditch, when many others in the South saw that defeat was 
inevitable, and urged that overtures be made looking to peace. 



460 APPENDIX. 

Bat this was better in the end, as, if peace had come sooner 
than it did, slavery might not have been so thoroughly eradi- 
cated and the general questions might not have been as com- 
pletely settled as they were. 

WHY THE FLAG WAS HALF-MASTED. 

I called the attention of Proprietor Cranston, of the New 
York Hotel, to the fact that there was some criticism over 
the fact that he was flying the flag of his hotel at half-mast. 

"Well, what objection is there to that?" he responded. 
" Mr. Davis has been a very prominent figure in our national 
life, and I do not see why there should be any fault found 
over our doing him this small honor. We have been hearing 
for years that there is now 'no north, no south, no east, no 
west,' but that we are all one brotherhood. I am not desir- 
ous of acquiring any notoriety out of the fact that I have put 
out our flag at half mast on this occasion while others have 
not. I have done it simply out of respect to the memory of 
Mr. Davis, who was a distinguished citizen of this country 
before the war began. Whenever he was in this city, I may 
add, he made his headquarters at this hotel." 

REMINISCENCES OF REPEESENTATIVE MILLS, OF TEXAs! 

" Mr. Davis was regarded by the Southern people as one of 
the greatest, best and purest men in the world. We all loved 
him. He was our representative man, and all of the Southern 
people understood that the opposition he encountered and the 
adverse criticisms piled upon him were intended for them. 
His position was misunderstood in the North. Mr. Davis 
was a Union man at the beginning and he adopted the course 
he did with great reluctance, but from a feeling of duty. He 



NOETHERN ESTIMATE OF DAVIS. 461 

was deeply attached to the Union, and wanted to exhaust 
every means on earth to prevent a rupture. He was not a 
vindictive or cruel man. He had perfect confidence in him- 
self, was well balanced on all occasions and was a great mili- 
tary man and statesman. He was highly accomplished and 
spoke the purest of English. His memory was marvelously 
clear. He never forgot anybody. My predecessor, Mr. Ged- 
dings, told me that one day Mr. Davis was addressing a 
crowd, when a snowy haired old man on the outskirts ex- 
pressed a desire to greet the speaker, whom he had known 
and served under in the Mexican war. Mr. Geddings offered 
to introduce him, but the old man declined, and going up to 
Mr. Davis, offered him his hand and asked if he recognized 
him. Mr. Davis fixed his eyes upon him for a moment, his 
mouth twitched, tears sprang into his eyes, and he exclaimed : 
' Ward, snow has fallen on your head since I last saw you.' 
* And that,' Mr. Mills said, ' was about forty years before the 
meeting.' " 



MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. 

prominent men throughout the south express 
their sympathy with mrs. davis. 

Jackson, Miss. 
Hon. E. H. Farrar: Bells are tolling, public buildings 
draped in mourning, an immense meeting to be held at 
4 P.M., with view of dispatching committee to claim remains 
of the great dead for interment in Mississippi. 

Egbert Lowry, Governor. 

Jackson, Miss. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis : Permit us to tender you and yours 
assurances of sympathy in your unspeakable bereavement. 
Your great husband will live always in the reverent and 
affectionate memory of all our people, whose grief now is 
without measure. W. W. Stone, 

T. M. Miller, Geo. M. Govan, 

T. R. Preston, "W. D. Holden, 

W. L. Hemingway. 

Austin, Tex. 
I WTite in a portrayal of sincere condolence with those 
who honored your illustrious husband while living, and who 
revere his memory when dead. His lofty patriotism, im- 
maculate integrity and firmness of purpose, which never 
yielded principle for expediency nor abandoned the right for 
success, will be held up for emulation by the aspiring youth 
of Texas who would achieve an honorable distinction among 
their fellow men. L. S. Ross, Governor. 

462 



MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. 463 

Jackson, Miss. 
3Ir. E. H. Farrar: State officers resolve to attend the 
funeral in a body. Please advise arrangements. Will you 
kindly make known to the family that Mississippi, the State 
he loved so well, will claim the honor of being the resting- 
place of the patriot, statesman and nobleman, whose great 
name is iudissolubly linked with her own ? 

Robert Lowry, Governor. 

Columbia, S. C. 
3Irs. Jeferson Davis: With my deep and sincere personal 
sympathy I beg to express to you the profound sorrow of the 
people of South Carolina at the intelligence of the death of 
your illustrious husband. The fame of his greatness will 
grow with the passing years. 

J. P. Richardson, Governor South Carolina. 

Atlanta, Ga. 
3frs. Jefferson Davis: You have deepest sympathy in the 
loss of your illustrious husband. They loved him to the 
last. » John J. Glenn, Mayor of Atlanta. 

No. 320 Josephine Street, Dec. 6, 1889. 
Judge E. C. Fenner. 

Dear Sir : The people of Louisiana will hear with 
profound grief and sorrow the death of President Davis, — a 
man who, standing equally the tests of prosperity and adver- 
sity, became even more and more endeared to the true men 
and women of his State as his brave and unblemished life 
drew to a close. 

Would you do me the kindness, at a later moment, to 
convey to Mrs. Davis my sincere sympathy with her and 



464 APPENDIX. 

the expression of strong regard and affection for her hus- 
band? 

I would have seen you this morning in person, but 
sprained my foot last night so badly as to make it impossi- 
ble for me to leave the house. I have directed that the 
flag on the Capitol be displayed at half-mast. 

Very truly, Francis T. Nicholls. 

San Marcos, Tex. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: The South mourns to-day as mourns 
the family when a link in the chain is broken. Your sor- 
row is our own. W. D. Wood, 

E. H. Reynolds, Geo. T. McGehee, 

Hammett Hardy, Sam'l R. Kane, 
J. V. Henderson, Sterling Fisher. 

Norfolk, Ya. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: We venerate the memory of our 
dead President and reverently tender you our deep sympathy 
in your great grief. Bexet Buchanan, 

Commanding Confederate Veterans. 
J. F. Cecil^ Commander. 

Jackson, Miss. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: My sympathies and prayers are 
with you. Hugh Miller Thompson. 

Atlanta, Ga. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Please accept my sincere sympathy 
in your bereavement. Our whole people mourn with you 
and pray that God may bless you and yours. 

Henry W. Grady. 



MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. 465 

Atlanta, Oa. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: The West View Cemetery Company 
renew their offer to you in February last through Mr. Sid- 
ney Root, and beg that you will accept. 

W. J. Gaeret, President. 

Headquarters Confederate Survivors' ) 
Association, Augusta, Ga., Dec. 6. J 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: The members of the Confederate 
Survivors' Association of Augusta, Ga., crave the privilege 
of assuring you at the earliest moment of their profound 
sympathy and heartfelt sorrow upon the demise of your illus- 
trious husband and beloved chief and the venerated Presi- 
dent of the Southern Confederacy. 

Chas. C. Jones, Jr., 
President Confederate Survivors' Association. 

Atlanta, Ga. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Warmest sympathies and most fer- 
vent prayers will go down to-morrow. 

J. Wm. Jones, Senator. 

Memphis, Tenn. 
Mrs. Varina Davis: The Historical Association of Mem- 
phis tenders its sympathy and regrets at the great loss sus- 
tained by you and the country in the death of Mr. Davis. 
This association begs the boon of bringing his honored remains 
here for burial, and we assure you and the country that his 
grave shall be kept green through the coming ages. We 
urge this, as he was a member of our association, made his 
first home here after the war, and was dear to the hearts of 
this community. C. W. FrxVZER, President. 

R. J. Block, Secretary. 
30 



466 APPENDIX. 

Little Rock, Aek. 
3Trs. Jefferson Davis: My wife and self deeply sympa- 
thize with you in this greatest affliction that could befall 
you. We all deplore the death of your precious husband, 
who was beloved by all who knew him. He was a great 
and good man. The whole South mourn his loss, and his 
name will ever have a warm place in the hearts of those he 
leaves to follow him. John D. Adams. 

St. Louis, Mo. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Mingling mine with the sincere 
grief of the countless admirers and lovers of your illustrious 
husband, I beg to tender to you and family heartfelt sympa- 
thy in this your hour of deepest affliction. 

Maecus Beenheimer. 

New York. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: I and my household mourn with 
you. Accept our sincere sympathy. 

W. H. Hardy. 

Mr. Wm. L. Davis, of New York, expressed his loving 
sympathy. 

Dallas, Tex. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Myself, in common with all the 
Confederates in Texas, mourn the death of your illustrious 
husband. May God have you and your children in his 
keeping! "VV. L. Cabell. 

Richmond. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Accept my heartfelt and devoted 
sympathy in your deep sorrow. W. G. Walter. 



MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. 467 

Memphis, Tenn. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Our hearts follow you and beat in 
tenderest sympathy with you in this hour of your deepest 
sorrow. We pray, God give you grace to bear your cross, 
and grant that the soul of your noble and illustrious husband 
may rest in peace ! Maeco and Katie Paolo. 

Memphis. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Please accept assurances of our 
great sorrow and heartfelt sympathy. 

Me. and Mes. H. M. Neely. 

Atlanta, Ga. 
Mrs. Varina Davis. 

My Deae Feiend : God bless you and keep you in 

this sore trial. The whole South mourns with you. 

Sidney Root. 

Washington, Dec. 6. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis. 

My Deae Feiend: Myself and family mourn with 
you for the death of your distinguished and noble husband 
and my most valued friend. In the hour of your calamity 
you have the affectionate sympathy of millions of loving 
friends, who deplore the loss of the true friend, the earnest 
Christian, the patriotic citizen, the wise statesman, most be- 
loved and venerated by a large part of the American people 
for his self-sacrificing devotion to principle and to duty. 
!May God protect and help you in your great affliction ! 
Command me always if I can serve you. 

John H. Eeagan. 

Tallahassee, Fla. 
3Irs. Jefferson Davis: Permit me to tender my sincerest 



468 APPENDIX. 

sympathies in the great affliction which has come to you. 
The people of the South mourn with you in this our com- 
mon bereavement. F. P. Flemming, Governor. 

KiCHMOND, Va. 
My wife unites with me in love and sincere sympathy 
with you in the loss of your illustrious husband. His life 
was the illustration of talent and virtue that ennobled hu- 
manity. Jos. R. Anderson". 

Atlanta, Ga. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: No people would hold the remains 
of your illustrious dead in deeper or more constant reverence 
than the people of Atlanta, and we should esteem it the 
highest honor to have them in West View Cemetery, — itself 
a battle-field on which his soldiers fought and fell. 

H. W. Grady. 

GOLDSBORO', N. C. 

Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Thomas Ruffin Camp, Ex- Confed- 
erate Veterans, of Wayne County, North Carolina, now con- 
vened to pay tribute to the memory of your illustrious hus- 
band, beg leave to express their profound sympathy and to 
mourn with you and yours in the sad bereavement which 
has befallen you in the death of their beloved ex-President. 

Swift Galloway, Commander. 

Atlanta, Ga. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: If you and your family are inclined 
to accept the offer of the beautiful cemetery in this city, 
which I urgently advise, they will bring all the remains of 
your children. Perpetual care is guaranteed, and a monu- 
ment will be built. Sidney Root. 



MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. 469 

Montgomery, Ala. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: With profound sympathy and con- 
dolence in your great bereavement, and in response to the 
united wishes of our people, we earnestly request that you 
allow us to have the remains of Mr. Davis buried here under 
the Confederate monument, on Capitol Hill, where he was 
inaugurated President, the corner-stone of which was laid by 
him, and which, when completed, will be ornamented with a 

life-size bronze statue of him. 

Edward W. Plers, 
President Confederate Veterans^ Association of Alabama. 

J. T. HOLTZCHAW, 

President Montgomery Veterans^ Association. 
W. S. Reese, 
President Alabama Confederate Monument Association, 

Mrs. M. D. Ribb, 
President Ladies^ Memorial Association. 
Edmund A. Graham, Mayor 
Thos. H. Watts, 
Ex-Attorney General Confederate States. 

Macon, Ga. 
Mi'S. Jefferson Davis: The Riverside Company of Macon 
offer, with their heartfelt sympathy in your great affliction, 
the best and most conspicuous burial lot in their cemetery, 
overlooking Ac^ulgo River and the City of Macon. We 
have an endowment requiring perpetual care of graves and 
lots, and it is laid out on the lawn plan. The grounds are 
beautiful, undulating and artificially planted as one harmo- 
nious flower-garden on a lofty eminence, overlooking the 
river and city, and adjacent to both is a Confederate redoubt, 
which is guaranteed to be preserved ; and we offer this lovely 
spot as a fitting burial place for Mr. Davis and as a family 



470 APPENDIX. 

burial lot. The lot will be ornamented with fountains and 
lakelets, and the entire redoubt, or fort, with flowers, as 
directed by yourself, and a splendid memorial will be erected 
if you accept our urgent and loving offer. We will gladly 
bear all transportation and burial expenses, and will send an 
escort to bring the body to Macon. We beg you to visit 
Macon and remain as the city's guest. 

Robert E. Park, President Hiverside Cemetery. 

Washington, D. C. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: Every true son of the South shares 
your sorrow. J. C. S. Blackburn. 

Athens, Ga. 
3Irs. Jefferson Davis: We tender our heartfelt sympathies 
to yourself and family in the loss of our soldier statesman 
and ex-Confederate chieftain. 

Ex-Confederate Soldiers Survivors' Assoctatiox 
OF Northeast Georgia. 

H. H. Carller, President. 
Ed. D. Newton, Secretary. 

Memphis, Tenn. 
We, the friends of our ex-President, join in expressions 
of sympathy with a united South generally, and the citizens 
of Memphis particularly, and desire to add their earnest re- 
quest to that of the Confederate Historical Association of 
this city, that his honored remains may find their final rest- 
ing place here where he was always loved. 

Thos. H. Allen, M. C. Galloway, 

H. C. Wellon, Thos. N. Allen, 

W. H. Calleen, Jas. E. Beasley, 

Casey Young, M. B. Trezevant. 



MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. 47I 

Atlanta, Ga. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: The West View Cemetery Company- 
tenders a beautiful lot for the burial of Mr. Davis and his 
family, and will have the remains of any of his children re- 
moved to it. The people of Atlanta would be glad to have 
the remains of your illustrious husband rest in their midst, 
and will take pride in protecting his grave in the future. 

John T. Glenn, Mayor, 

Claeksville, Tenn. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: A public meeting of the citizens of 
Clarksville join Forbes Bivouac in tendering to you and 
yours their heartfelt sympathies in the hour of your afflic- 
tion. Our people mourn with you in the death of your 
illustrious husband and our ex-President, and shall ever 
cherish the memory of his invaluable services to our South- 
ern land, J. J. Grossman, 

A. D. Sears. 

Richmond, Ya. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: The sympathetic chords of the 
hearts of our people are deeply touched at the loss of one 
we have ever regarded with the greatest aifection, and the 
memory of whose valor and virtue we will ever hold sacred. 

FiTZHUGH Lee, Governor, 

"Washington. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis: The whole Southern people are in 
grief over the death of their great and beloved countryman, 
and their sympathy with you and your precious ones is deep 
and pervading. Please believe that what I feel for you can 
not be told in words. L. Q. C. Lamar. 



472 APPENDIX. 

Chattanooga, Tenn. 
3Irs. Jefferson Davis: For many days we have eagerly 
watched the bulletins from the bed-side of our late chieftain, 
sharing your anxiety in his condition. The ray of hope that 
gleamed but yesterday filled our hearts with joy commensu- 
rate wuth your own unsolicited letter of congratulations for 
Forest Camp, which scarcely started on its way when we 
were shocked by the announcement of his death. Our heads 
bow in sorrow and our hearts ache in sympathy with you 
and your family in the hour of your bereavement, that is 
shared in our whole Southland. 

J. T. Skipp, Commander. 

J. T. DiCKEESON, Adjutant. 

St. Louis, Mo. 
J. U. Payne : In the loss of your devoted and life-long 
friend, my heart goes out in deepest sympathy to you and 
Mrs. Davis, with an assurance of my profound sorrow and 
regret. Miles Sells. 

St. Louis, Mo. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis : The members of the Ex-Confeder- 
ate Historical and Benevolent Association of St. Louis tender 
you their deepest sympathy. The memory of your illustri- 
ous husband will always be fresh in our hearts. 

Joseph Boyce^, President. 

Kaleigh, N. C. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis : North Carolina mourns with you 
the death of the greatest and most beloved of the sons of our 
Southland. Danl. G. Fowle, Governor. 



MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. 473 

Montgomery, Ala. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis : All sons and daughters of Alabama 
weep with you and yours. W. S. Reese. 

Washington, D. C. 

Mrs. Jefferson Davis : The whole South mourns with you. 
Your husband's hold upon the affections of the people in his 
last days was even stronger than in the time of his great 
power. E. C. Walthall. 

Mr. J. U. Payne received a dispatch from ex-Gov. I^ub- 
bock, of Texas, asking when Mr. Davis would be buried, as 
he desired to attend. 

Jackson, Miss. 

Mrs. Jefferson Davis: The great heart of Mississippi is 
touched by the death of her best beloved. 

His noble nature and public services will be treasured 
always in the memory of her people. 

Accept assurances of my heart-felt sympathy. Your be- 
reavement is our bereavement, and may their merciful God 
comfort you. Eobert Lowry, Governor. 

Mobile, Dec. 6, 1889. 
President Army of Northern Virginia : Please telegraph 
me when the funeral of Jefferson Davis will take place, and 
what arrangements will be made for delegations of military 
and citizens. Price W^illiams, 

President Lee Association. 

A TRIBUTE TO A KIND MASTER. 

Among the hundreds of letters received by Mrs. Jeffer- 
son Davis since the death of her distinguished husband 



474 APPENDIX. 

there is scarcely one more suggestive and touching than 
one from his old servants at Brierfield, Miss., which reads : 
"We, the old servants and tenants of our beloved master, 
Hon. Jeiferson Davis, have cause to mingle our tears over 
his death, who was always kind and thoughtful of our 
peace and happiness. We extend to you our humble sym- 
pathy. Respectfully, your old tenants and servants." Mr. 
Davis was always a kind master, and such incidents as 
this, which could be multiplied, are the most effectual an- 
swers to many of the untruthful publications that have 
been made about him. 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL* 

A LARGE AUDIENCE AT THE ARMORY OE THE FIFTH 

REGIMENT APPIvAUD STIRRING WORDS AND 

TOUCHING TRIBUTES. 

THE tongues of Marylauders whose hearts once beat for 
the Confederacy wove a bright chaplet of respect and 
admiring tribute to the memory of Jefferson Davis at 
the Fifth Regiment Armory last night. The people of the 
State who upheld iu thought or deed the cause which the 
dead leader championed were fairly represented in the aud- 
ience. Several of the speakers and many of those who lis- 
tened had worn the uniform of gray during the four bloody 
years of civil strife, and some had felt the force of the bullets 
fired so thickly in defence of the Union cause. 

The gathering was, in many respects, a remarkable one, 
and noticeably different from those which usually assemble 
at public meetings. It was such as might come together at 
a high-class lecture or the performance of some famous oper- 
atic star, and the air of refinement and perfect decorum 
which pervaded the exercises and everything connected with 
the occasion was striking. Ladies outnumbered the stronger 
sex three to one, and they were nearly all well dressed and 
cultivated in appearance. There were kindly and dignified 
grandmothers who had, perhaps, lost a sou or husband fight- 
ing in defense of the stars and bars, and younger women 
whose hearts once trembled for the safety of lovers in the 

* From the Baltimore Sun of December 12th, 1SS9. 

475 



476 APPENDIX. 

legions of Lee or Jackson. Young ladies on the safe side 
of twenty-five were numerous also, and either accompanied 
their fathers and brothers or sat beside their beaux. 

The doors were not thrown open to the general public 
until a short time before the exercises began at eight o'clock, 
and it was difficult for gentlemen to get in previous to that 
hour unless they were accompanied by female companions. 
Some of the male auditors brought along three or four ladies, 
and the fair ones clapped their gloved hands as enthusiasti- 
cally as anybody when the speakers said anything especially 
eloquent or touching. 

Confederate officers, whose bravery and devotion won 
honorable recognition away back in the sixties, could be 
picked out in the assemblage on every side. Some of them 
were quite old, and their warlike goatees and such hair as 
they had left showed the whitening touch of years; but their 
acquaintances could tell of many a madcap charge or reck- 
less assault in which they took part when the hot blood of 
youth dashed impetuously through their veins. Those who 
belonged to the Society of the Army and Navy of the Con- 
federate States in Maryland wore the bright-colored decora- 
tions of that organization, modeled after the Confederate 
battle-flag. 

THE DECORATIONS. 

The decoration of the hall was meagre and confined to the 
vicinity of a large platform erected for the speakers at the 
north end. From the edge of the raised space a plain fold 
of black mourning material hung straight down to the floor, 
and was held in place at the top by seven red and white ro- 
settes. From each bunch of ribbon streamed long pieces of 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL. 477 

white and black material, which made an appropriate effect. 
The speakers' stand was also covered with black and white, 
drawn back in the form of a cross in front. 

PORTRAIT OF MR. DAVIS. 

A picture of the dead ex-President at the front of the gal- 
lery overhead attracted more attention than any other object 
in the room because of its prominent position. It was a 
bust view at least equal to life size, and represented Mr. 
Davis dressed in clothing like that worn in the far South. 
The cool, low-cut vest showed a wide shirt front, and the 
black necktie seemed to have slipped loose. But while the 
garb in the picture looked very natural, everybody re- 
marked that the features were not those of Mr. Davis. The 
beard was full and cropped something after the style of the 
late General Grant, and the face, it was remarked, was a lit- 
tle too full to look like the original. Persons in the au- 
dience busied themselves, before the addresses began, in com- 
paring the picture to the lineaments of their acquaintances. 
The portrait, which was executed with a crayon, was framed 
in folds of two American flags. On its right was a splendid 
silk Maryland flag, and on its left an equally handsome na- 
tional banner. Stark upright above it stood the staff of a 
Maryland coat of arras upon a blue field, and on the extreme 
right was the Confederate battle-flag, now so seldom seen, 
with its red field and crossed bars, containing the thirteen 
white stars which represented the seceding States. The flags 
were draped with black and rested in front of a field of the 
same sombre color, which concealed a part of the north gal- 
lery from view. 



478 APPENDIX. 

VETERANS FROM THE ARSENAL. 

The entrance of the venerable Confederate veterans from 
the Pikesville Home caused the audience to turn around in 
their seats and applaud fifteen minutes before the meeting 
began. The grizzled old fellows made a strange sight as 
they marched toward the stage as fast as their toiling steps 
could carry them. There w^ere twenty-seven of them alto- 
gether who made the journey in order to hear the eulogies 
delivered on the life of their old chief, and all were clad in 
uniforms of genuine Confederate gray, with shining brass 
buttons. Their long army overcoats were lined with red, 
and most of them wore soft slouched hats. The applause 
kept up steadily from their entrance until they took the seats 
allotted to them in the rear rows of platform chairs. 

THE OLD COLOR-BEARER. 

Not far from the head of the line waved a good-sized 
American flag borne by Morris Scott, a stout old veteran 
over six feet high, whose face was almost hidden under 
a wide-brimmed drab hat. When the aged color-bearer 
ascended the stage and removed the hat, his resemblance to 
Jefferson Davis was generally commented upon. His white 
hair and chin-beard were cut after the old school, exactly 
like the dead ex-President's, and the likeness of the features 
was almost startling. Scott served in a Texas regiment, but 
is a native of Montgomery County, Md. The veterans were 
in charge of Superintendent William H. Pope, and were 
escorted by Mr. James E.. Wheeler. 

The following were among the speeches made. 

Mayor Davidson said : " I accept, with no ordinary feel- 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL. 479 

iugs, the duty of presiding over this large and intelligent 
audience. 

"Another great oak of the forest has fallen, and, as well 
those who have admired it from a distance, as those who 
have rested and reposed beneath its boughs, must stay awhile 
before it passes out of human sight — I will not say forever, 
but for a time. 

"Time has passed for Jefferson Davis; time in which the 
vision is obscured by ignorance, by passion, by prejudice. 
Eternity has come, in which truth and sincerity and devo- 
tion to duty will count for more than enthusiasm warmed up 
by self-interest, or yet than the reputation for wise choosing 
or the rewards of successful effort. 

" We are here assembled beside the grave of one of the 
most' conspicuous characters in American history ; of a man 
of the mould of a Cato, of one whose sense of right was sin- 
gle, who could plant himself in lonely courage upon it and 
stand unmoved as the granite hills. The heat of the day has 
long since past, and even the eye which dreaded or disliked 
the sun in its meridian can look with sympathy and pleasure 
upon the soft beauty of its setting. 

" Here let us all, those who differed as those who sided 
with the great departed, do honor to the truthfulness, the sin- 
cerity, the moral courage of the man who, of all others in 
that great contest, trod the wine press alone. 

" We are not here to discuss the causes or the merits of the 
unhappy era in the history of our country when the debate 
was adjourned from the halls of legislation to the tented 
field, and the blue and the gray, equally valiant, stood over 
against each other. These colors are blended now into softer 



480 APPENDIX. 

ones, and the manly hand that bore the sword has with theru 
painted out the canvas of brotherly hate forever. 
. " The debate is closed, the result loug since accepted, not 
sulkily, but with cheerful hope and alacrity, and to-day the 
emblem of our common country floats on every staff from 
the Penobscot to the Rio Grande, from the Chesapeake to the 
Golden Gate. 

" But that man nevertheless wonld be a coward and a 
recreant who, though convinced and converted, would turn 
his back upon and refuse to honor the man whom he and his 
fellows placed in the advance of the cause wliich he had 
espoused. 

" Though I was too young to bear a part in the stirring 
events of the war, I was present in Richmond from its 
beginning to its close, and even as a boy I was able to 
observe the high presence, to estimate somewhat, though too 
teebly, the noble character, the sincerity, illumined by Chris- 
tian conviction, the determination to walk in what he thought 
the path of rectitude, how stony soever it might be. 

"Wrong he may have been, and that in fact he was, many 
times, with the fuller light of after events, all will admit ; 
but that he was consciously wrong, that he ever allowed 
his actions to be moved by the hand of his own selfish inter- 
ests, all who knew him will deny. 

" There are some associations in one's life that no lapse of 
time, no change of place or circumstances can efface; son)e 
which one cherishes with something of that feeling which 
induces him to lay by and keep with tender affection some 
keepsake, some mute emblem of ' those loved long since and 
lost awhile. ' Such an association with me is the stopping of 
Jefferson Davis at my father's house on Sunday, the 2d of 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL. 481 

April, 1865, when, with tears in those loving and noble eyes, 
he warmly pressed the hands of my father and his family 
and gave them the sad words of farewell. And so now I 
come here, in this presence, to say farewell to that benevolent 
and God-fearing soul as it has taken its last journey into the 
hereafter, and placing upon the fresh mound the beautiful 
flowers of affection, moistened with sympathetic tears, leave 
the illustrious * dust unto dust.' " 

SPEECH OF COLONEL D. G. McINTOSH. 

Colonel D. G. JMcIntosh said : " It has been accredited 
a proper thing to do when men have played a distinguished 
part on the stage of life to deck their graves with gar- 
lands. In the nature of things it was not to be expected 
that this was to be done in the death of the Hon. 
Jefferson Davis. While we cannot as a nation bestow 
these emblems of mourning, we can, as a people, testify ou't 
devotion to his memory and bow with grief beside his open 
grave. Half a mighty nation stands to-day with hearts too 
full for utterance, and in the city where lie his remains the 
walls are clad in black and an army of men looked on features 
which they shall see no more. The women of the South, to 
whom he dedicated his book and whom he idolized, and who 
in turn idolized him, to-day made libations of their tears and 
poured them freely on the altar of their undying love. This 
spectacle has no equal in our past, and cannot be equalled in 
our future. 

" Well may they say, ' dire rebel that he was, he was 

endowed with great and noble gifts.' He nothing lacked of 

sovereignty but the right, and of the soldier he nothing lacked 

but fortune. In the midst of such surroundings as these 

31 



482 APPENDIX. 

we cannot be unmoved. In Baltimore live many of his 
nearest and most devoted friends. From this city went forth 
many who battled for the cause which he espoused. Many 
died, and their friends mourn them still. Our hearts would 
harden and our nature turn Avith scorn if we in such a case 
failed to attest our love and our loyalty to his memory. He 
is beyond the breath of censure, and the shafts of calumny 
cannot disturb his spirit. AVe will bequeath his memory as 
a precious legacy to our children. 

" It would be folly on this occasion to attempt to trace the 
full course of this man. His history, perhaps, runs further 
than that of any of those who struggled with him in the lost 
cause. His brilliant record in Mexican and Indian affairs, 
his political prominence, known integrity, and other reasons 
pointed him out as the man to whom the destinies of the 
Confederacy should be confided. 

" The time has already arrived when an impartial criti- 
cism has marked the lines of responsibility for the events 
which followed secession. The North mourns her gallant 
sons as well as the South. She has her memory which 
should not be disturbed. As the North looks back through 
a clarified atmosphere she recognizes that Mr. Davis stood 
side by side with his section, only put in a more prominent 
position by his talents and capabilities. 

" The trouble did not have its origin in Mr. Davis, but 
long" before his era. The first convention for the framinoj of 
the Federal Constitution was attended with difficulties, prin- 
cipally with regard to representation, and was adopted with 
reluctance by some. The antagonism between the sections 
for power grew, and it was adopted at the South as a cardinal 
principle that the balance of power must be kept as a matter 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL. 483 

of safety to the South. The election of a President from a 
party hostile to the South destroyed the equilibrium, and the 
South at once withdrew irom the Union. The movement 
was not hostile personally to the President-elect. The South 
was thoroughly alarmed, and it believed it had the Constitu- 
tional right to separate. It was not the right, but the 
necessity or expediency of separating that the South dis- 
cussed. The great masses of the South believed in the right, 
as they would in an oracle from on high. Mr. Davis was 
sincerely attached to the Union, and from his education and 
from his services it could not have been otherwise. But he 
stood with his countrymen. The preservation of his section 
only remained in that sovereignty which resided in the 
State. 

" History will no doubt pass judgment as to whether Mr. 
Davis and his associates were right in their belief. But his- 
tory will never use in this the word which of all others his 
Boul most abhorred, that of traitor. [Great applause.] No 
disaster could appal him. When defeated he issued those 
flaming bulletins Avhich cheered the men and excited them 
again to deeds of valor. [Applause.] 

" It was the fortune of some of his soldiers who had not 
been paroled at Appomattox to overtake him in tiie retreat. 
He would not believe that the star of tiie Confederacy had 
fallen. The imperial will refused to be thwarted. He still 
pictured for himself another base of operations, and the little 
command of the speaker left Mr. Davis with the assurance 
that they would meet him across the Mississippi. Two days 
later he was captured and the conflict ended." The speaker 
nexl saw Mr. Davis in Richmond, Va., arraigned on the 
charge of treason. " Fortunately for the whole country," he 



484 APPENDIY. 

continued, " the charge was not pressed. The offer of Horace 
Greeley [great and long-continued applause, which prevented 
the speaker from completing the sentence for some time,] to 
be a hostage for his late enemy was the first step towards the 
reconciliation between the two sections. In those days the 
heart of the South towards Jefferson Davis was as a mother's 
heart to her child. The irons on him transfixed the hearts of 
the people of the South. To his people it was an atonement 
for any errors he might have committed. He was the people's 
vicarious sufferer. All else was forgiven and forgotten. 

" He already in history stands out the most interesting if 
not the most conspicuous figure of the day. His early 
friend, Albert Sydney Johnston, [applause,] his counsellor 
and adviser, Robert E. Lee, [applause,] his faithful lieuten- 
ant, Stonewall Jackson, [immense applause, shouts, yells and 
continued demonstration,] we can trust posterity to do justice 
to one and all. Nature made him one of its noblemen. 
The faith which he professed and the virtues which he prac- 
ticed made him a Christian gentleman, and that land to 
which he has gone will make his soul pursue endless activity 
through oceans of time." 

SPEECH OF GENERAL BRADLEY T. JOHNSON. 

General Bradley T. Johnson said : " Twelve States and 
ten million people, standing with uncovered heads, do honor 
to the memory of a man who has just died penniless and 
powerless, who for twenty-five years has been their ideal hero, 
patriot, statesman, and with the homage to his memory there 
mingles not a stain of grief. With his intellect undimmed, 
with his honor unstained, with his reputation peerless, he has 
passed from among the sons of men and left his example an 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL. 485 

imperishable monument. Time levels everything. The 
pathway of history is strewn with the wreck of systems, of 
empires and of races. No one can tell where Cambyses sat 
or where Cyrus was buried, but noble ideas are more lasting 
than marble or bronze, and memory gives a more permanent 
record than monuments. 

" The story of Davis and of Lee, of Jackson and of Stuart 
will be told, and the courage, manliness and fortitude of their 
followers will be the themes for generations to come. My 
wonder grows with the passing years as I contemplate the 
heroic virtues of those days. 

" Tears there are, but they are the tears of pride, not of 
sorrow ; of honor, not of grief. Facing the verdict of his- 
tory, we can truthfully say that there is not a trait of Jeffer- 
son Davis that we would have changed ; not an incident of 
the last twenty-five years we would have altered. During 
this whole generation he has borne the misfortune of failure 
without a sigh and with absolute dignity. With him we 
have not rejoiced at the failure of the Confederacy. With 
him we have never come to the conclusion that we are jrlad 
the war ended as it did, and with him we have grieved that 
we failed to establish the Confederate States, because with him 
we believed, and still do believe, that it would have been 
better for the whole country for the Confederacy to have 
succeeded and not to have failed. It will, after a while, be 
understood that the attempt to establish the Confederacy was 
an attempt to amend the Constitution of the United States, 
and to form a new Union, precisely as was done by dissolving 
the old Confederation and forming the new Union of 1789. 
The Confederation of 1776 to 1781 was formed to make ' a 
perpetual Union.' 



486 APPENDIX. 

" Mr. Davis and the men "with him were trying to estab- 
lish a Government on the principles of the Constitution of 
1789. I have never concluded that I have been glad that 
war ended as it did. On the contrary, I deplore our defeat. 
I submit to the inevitable, and I believe that it would have 
been better for all, North and South, had the amended Con- 
stitution at Montgomery been adopted for the whole country. 
Conquest is a dangerous thing — quite as dangerous for the 
conqueror as for the conquered — and the irresponsible power 
wielded by the United States from 1865 to 1876 has fur- 
nished precedents fraught with evil to the future of liberty 
in the country. They have established the precedent that 
property may be destroyed by a majority vote, and that per- 
sonal liberty may be abolished by the force of numbers, and 
that these are rights which inhere in majorities. It requires 
no prophet to foretell the coming crusade against corporate 
property just as there was against slav^e property, and when 
the time of trial comes, Constitutional guarantee and paper 
promises will avail nothing." 

SPEECH OF KEV. DR. MURKLAND. 

The Rev. D.r W. U. Murkland, pastor of Franklin Street 
Presbyterian Church, said : " There are things connected 
with the strife of the civil war that we cannot forget, for we 
would be traitors to the dead and to ourselves if we did. I 
speak of the heroic element in the Confederate soldier which 
now lives in the hearts of the people of the South; of the 
heroic endeavor^of the men who stood by what they judged to 
be right, and through trial and suffering refused to relinquish 
one iota of principles in defense of which they were willing to 
lay down their lives. The strife has passed, but this spirit 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL. 487 

which has come out of that dark time, and which never be- 
fore in the history of the world has been equaled, can never 

die. 

" When men write the history of the past and of that brave 
array, they will recite the deeds of men whose memory is im- 
perishable. Men speak of this age of ours as a material age, 
everybody busy with money-getting and with the practical 
affairs of life. As young men, we have longed for the 
chivalric days of other centuries, but in our generation and 
century has been revealed a grand heroism, a brave, daring 
and a mighty chivalry that puts to blush all the chivalry of 
the past. Where was there ever a grander exhibition of it than 
was witnessed on the blood-stained battle-fields of the South 
within the past five and twenty years ? 

" The grandest spectacle for me is the picture of the humble 
household ot the South sending forth its son to die for the 
cause of liberty— parents giving of their scanty substance to 
fit out a son, clothing him in the gray homespun, and then 
mortgaging their farm to bring him home and bury him. 

" It is the record of the sufferings of these men borne with 
the patience of Christians and the fortitude of martyrs, that 
marks them as heroes. They had no slaves ; they had but 
little property. They fought for their country, for their con- 
ceptions of right and truth and justice, and when found on 
the field after the battle they had no shoes on their feet and 
but a spoonful of parched corn in their haversacks. 

" Twenty-five years have passed, and men of this stamp, 
their wives, their sons and their daughters, stand sorrowing 
around the grave of that hero of heroes, Jefferson Davis, 
honoring him whose country, which he served nobly and well, 
refused to grant the privileges it had granted to slaves. He, 



488 APPENDIX. 

a man alone among his fellows ; among them but not one of 
them; a solitary picture; a man without a country; one 
upon whom calumny and indignities had been heaped — 
wept over by millions, is a picture without a parallel in the 
history of the country. 

SPEECH OF S. TEACKLE WALLTS. 

Mr. S. Teackle Wallis said : " The irons which manacled 
the hands of Jefferson Davis in his prison cell entered the 
hearts of every man and woman in the South, and made him 
a consecrated caan. By the action of his country he was re- 
fused the citizenship of the United States, and by this he was 
made a citizen of the world. He was set apart from all he 
loved, yet he bore all his trials, all his persecutions, all the 
indignities heaped upon him, as a patriot, as a Christian and 
as a gentleman. It is a picture that the world seldom looks 
at, one that the world rarely sees. 

" There are two things that have struck me since the death 
of Mr. Davis. One has been the almost universal kindness 
with which his memory has been recalled in the North. 
Here and there we hear a snarl ; there is a stringent voice 
crying out against him who is now lying cold in his grave 
and over whom millions are mourning, but this only brings 
out more clearly by the disagreeable contrast the kindness 
everywhere shown. There must be men of this sort in the 
world because there is wickedness in the world. 

" I differed from Mr. Davis in many ways at the time of 
the war. There were probably not many who differed so 
widely with him as did I ; but long ago I made up my mind, 
with the best thought and greatest intellect I could give to 
the question, that the cause to which he was pledged and to 



BALTIMORE'S MEMORIAL. 439 

which he offered himself as a sacrifice was the right cause, and 
I am proud to say it. The occasion is a great one, when men 
can come together all over this broad land with one object in 
view, to touch each other's hands and get the electric tiirill of 
fellow-feeling through us by the contact. It shows that there 
is life in the old land yet. 

" Again, it is most gratifying to me to see the people of the 
South everywhere all gathering around the open grave of Mr. 
Davis — not merely to do him honor, but to say before God, 
before their country and before their fellow-man, that iiis 
cause was their cause ; his responsibility was their responsi- 
bility ; his wrongs were their wrongs ; his obloquy, if obloquy 
there be, to be theirs as well as his. You can plow up the 
land with cannon balls, devastate it with armies, and when 
you can get men to rally around a lost cause, remembering in 
their prosperity their hours of adversity, and standing around 
the grave of the man they chose as their leader in the cause 
for which they fought and lost, claiming his sins, if he com- 
mitted any, as their sins, and thanking God for being able to 
do so, they can never be anything but true, loyal citizens of 
the land. 

" In regard to Mr. Davis's character, he had his faults, and 
many ; he committed errors, and many ; but he was a great 
man, and there is a proverb that is so apt that it may be said 
to be true, that ' The greater the man the greater the error.' 
Faults, mistakes, error, temper, they belong to all men, and 
among them the best. What was his career ? At the time 
when this war was waged, when a constitutional government 
was passing into a despotism of the worst form, when Seward 
could arrest men at midnight, as I know, Mr. Davis and those 
around him were bringing a constitutional government out of 



490 APPENDIX 

chaos. The President of the United States suspending habeas 
corpus, and the Confederacy not daring to do it. This was 
one of the contrasts. There were many of them. Did any 
man ever charge him with selfish purposes ? Did his enemies, 
who hated him worst, ever say anything but that he was a 
brave honest man? The Confederacy weakened and came 
to an end. How it lasted for four long years, with all the 
wealth and resources of the North against it, with nothing 
but the energy of its men, the sacrifices of its women, is a 
great wonder of the world. But it did live, and that four 
years is an immortality. Mr. Jefferson Davis is dead, but 
dead as he is, with the portals of the grave closed over him, it 
seems that I am able to hear a sweet voice calling back and 
saying, ' He is not dead, but sleepeth.' " 



